


Mirror Images

by Lady_Blackhawk



Category: Young Avengers
Genre: Adoption, Gen, Mutants, Other characters will make cameo appearences, Post Mephisto, Renion
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-20
Updated: 2018-02-25
Packaged: 2018-03-08 10:07:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 29
Words: 68,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3205316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Blackhawk/pseuds/Lady_Blackhawk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Mephisto was destroyed William and Thomas were set free...not their souls...them and they landed a block away from the police station. Adopted separately, the twins find each other as teenagers. Follow their story as they learn about their powers, meet the X-men become Young Avengers and get embroiled in all that comes along with that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Babes in NYC

**Author's Note:**

> So this was spewed out of a random conversation at dinner with my friends where we pondered the whole transmigration of soul stuff and realized it would have been easier if Billy and Tommy were just adopted separately. Anyway. This first chapter features many Marvel Charactes such as George Stacy, Blake Burdick...pretty much 99& of characters, save for one mentioned in this story are real Marvel characters.

Mephisto had been destroyed and everything seemed back to normal. The energy had emanated from him in the moment of explosion. One ball of light, which split into two ended up in the middle of a busy street in New York City, right across from the police station, as the crowd gathered and someone called the cops, an officer and a detective appeared. 

            The city had been busy, and crime was somehow down. Fresh off his promotion, Captain George Stacy was on his way to get decent coffee, during a much needed break. It was raining and maybe his mind was playing tricks on him, but he thought for sure he had heard a baby crying, or several babies maybe.   

No, it must have been the lack of coffee and the sleep deprivation and stress of dealing with his mother-in-law. It had to be.

            The sounds grew louder as he headed towards the street where, despite the outside noise of traffic and the chatting crowd pulled around them, he heard the babies. He must have been going crazy. Outside he spotted one of his new detective, the tough Terri Lee and his Officer, Blake Burdick who were trying to get the crowd to move so they could assess the situation.

            “What’s going on?” asked Captain Stacy.

            “Sir,” said Blake, “We’re not really sure. These two just….appeared. Gotta be some kind of superhero trick.”

            “Doubtful,” cut in Terri Lee, an African-American woman who had transferred from the Georgia police department. She turned to the crowd, “Now move or I will have all of you arrested.”

            Inside the circle of people, as Stacy pushed through were two identical twins wearing matching blue onesies and dark brown hair, crying their little hearts out. He kneeled down and tried to pick up the twin to his left, but he refused to let go of his brother. He did see that on their wrists were something equivalent to hospital bracelets. One said Thomas, the other William.

            “Terri have you called Children’s Servies?”

            “Not yet sir,” said Terri just as an ambulance pulled up and the crowd was further dispersed.

            “Call ‘em and tell them to meet us at the hospital. I’ll ride along,” said Stacy. As the paramedics grabbed the kids and put them in the ambulance Stacy hopped in.

            The babies were checked over by a bunch of young medics. The babies appeared perfectly healthy and as they arrived at Mercy Hospital the babies were transferred to the care of Doctor Farzana Nayar who performed a full check-up of the twins while Stacy waited for CPS.

            The doctor, a nice Indian woman entered the waiting room where Captain Stacy waited.

            “The babies are tired, but they appear to be uninjured. We are going to run more tests. But for now, they’re asleep…can you tell me what happened to them Captain?” Nayar had known Captain Stacy for years, having been the one to deliver his daughter Gwen about ten years ago or so.

            “It was odd…Terri Lee, my new detective hadn’t called me in, I was on my way to get coffee, but I heard their crying a block away, through all the sound. They weren’t in a box and given their clothes it seems like someone had been taking care of them…but I have no idea. The best I can do is wait for CPS.”

            “Do you know how long the children had been out there?”

            “Probably since morning, I’m not sure.”

            “It has been a very cold fall this year. Even a few hours and on the ground…I will run additional tests.”

            “Excuse me,” called a woman. She had black, almost blue-like hair, she wore a green suit and sat in a wheelchair, “Are you Captain Stacy, medics told me you might be here?” He turned away from Nayar to the woman.

            “That’s me, are you CPS?”

            “Rebecca Blake,” she offered him her hand, “What’s the situation?”

            “Two boys found, twins, in matching onesies. All we know is their first names, Thomas and William. That’s it. That’s all there is.”

            Rebecca looked through the window and saw the boys in a baby bed, sound asleep. She frowned.

            “What is it Ms. Blake?”

            “Twins are tough to adopt—do we know how old the babies are?”

            Doctor Nayar replied, “Best guess…between 8 and 10 months.”

            “I know a family in New Jersey who is looking to adopt, but I do not think they will take both babies. When can the children be released to CPS?”

            “Not for a couple of days at the earliest. We’re waiting on blood work and we’d like to monitor them as well.”

            “I can take their picture and have my officers compare it to missing children in the area.”

            Rebecca smiled, “Doctor, please keep me updated.” Doctor Nayar agreed as Rebecca wrote down her work phone on her notepad and handed it to the doctor. Nayar excused herself to converse with a nurse in the Children’s Ward.

            “Coffee?” suggested Captain Stacy. Rebecca agreed and followed him to the elevator. Doctor Nayar went back to work.

            “They will be placed in temporary care until I can arrange for their adoption,” explained Rebecca Blake.

            “I have just one request, if you’ll permit me,” said Stacy as they stepped into the elevator and he clicked the button to take them to the hospital cafeteria.

            “And what is that?” she rolled inside after him.

            “Don’t let them change the kids’ names.”

            Rebecca pondered this, often time when babies are adopted, parents liked to give their children new named, or names in general if they never had one in the first place, to feel connected to them, to make certain the child was theirs. It allowed for a connection, especially if the name picked out belonged to a previous relative.

            “That would be doable, but a bit tricky, parents are…fickle…may I ask why?”

            “If you do end up separating them at least make it a bit easier for them to find each other.”

            “Know a lot about twins?” asked Rebecca and was the first off the elevator.

            “My brother has fraternal twins a couple years older than my Gwen, Jill and Paul. They’re very different, but they have a special bond. My sister-in-law tells me, it’s even stronger with identical twins.”

            He got two cups of coffee, paid and sat down at a small table, Rebecca followed. He handed her the coffee and she took a sip, bitter, black, but just perfect.

            “I’ll see what I can do. Ideally I would love to keep them together, but I am not sure if that is at all possible.”

            “Excellent and I can check hospital records to see if any twins named Thomas and William were born 8-10 months ago.”

            George Stacy and Rebecca talked for nearly an hour and he went back to the station with a plan.

            Blake Burdick was waiting for him when he arrived. He had just sat down when Blake burst into his office with a report.

            “We canvased the scene sir, nothing. No one reported seeing anyone dropping the babies. Though….”

            “What is it?” asked Stacy.

            “One woman did report seeing a glowing light right before the twins appeared.”

            “Odd…” said Stacy, “Call Stark Industries, see if they reported any unusual activity in that area.”

            “Yes sir,” said Blake, but he did not look excited at the thought of contacting Stark Industries. Lord how he detested Tony Stark and everything he stood for. But it was the job, he wouldn’t have it forever. One day, he would be a detective and he’d give the rookies the dumb assignments.

            “Lee, I need you in here,” called Stacy. She walked in and sat down in front of his desk which held a load of reports, case files, and lord knows what else that continued to clutter his office.

            “Sir?”

            “I need you to pull birth records from every hospital in a fifty mile radius, twin boys named Thomas and William, born 8-10 months ago.”

            “Yes sir,”

            “Once Burdick finishes with Stark Industries, get him on missing children in the area.”

            “Of course….though sir, I…one person reported seeing a light…is it possible that those children might have…”

            “Let’s not speculate until we have more information.”

            “Yes sir.” Lee left, leaving Stacy with his thoughts.

            Rebecca Blake sat in her cramped cubicle at CPS going through records of parents who were seeking children to adopt.  Child Protective Services took kids away from bad homes and put them in Foster care, her job was to find parents looking to adopt, not just foster. This was the sought after job, and she had been lucky to get it. Looking at potential parents for the twins was hard, there were many couples, but most were firm that they wanted only one child, right now.

            There were always foster parents temporarily, who would take both until someone willing to take twins came along.

Her lunch, consisting of a salad and some garlic bread sat in front of her completely untouched as she perused through files of people.

            “Hey Beck,” came her boss, Mr. Rightner, “Your service dog request, my buddy put a rush on it.”

            “Oh, thank you.”

            “It’ll be a couple of weeks and they’ll be some travel, but you’ll have a service dog.” He looked at the list of foster parents and parents looking to adopt that sprawled across her desk, as well as her untouched lunch, “Tough day?”

            She proceeded to fill her boss in on what was going on.

            “And now I’m trying to find a placement for them.”

            Her phone rang, loudly. Rightner gave her a nod and she answered.

            “Hello, is this Ms. Blake?”

            “This is she.”

            “This is Doctor Nayar from Mercy Hospital. I have an update for you.”

            “Yes?”

            “Thomas is completely healthy, however….William…has been diagnosed with asthma and we need to keep him under observation for at least a few more days.” Asthma. The poor kid. Asthma and so young made it even harder to find a proper placement for the boy. She explained herself to Dr. Nayar and reluctantly the doctor agreed.

            “Well…that ends that.”

            “What happened?” asked her boss.

            “William, one of the twins, he has Asthma.” Rightner’s sighed sadly.

            “You have to start looking for a home for Thomas, and then we can try finding a placement for William, once he’s cleared.”

            Thomas was adopted a week later by a very excited Frank and Mary Shepherd. They were not all that happy about not being able to change the boy’s name. But they were desperate and though their hopes of a daughter were dashed, they were eager to finally have a child of theirs. Thus Thomas Shepherd finally had a home. Days before William had been placed in a special incubator to help with his breathing and Thomas cried. He cried until he couldn’t cry anymore and now he was on his way to New Jersey.

Doctor Farzana Nayar was not happy about the twins being split, but it was for the better.  The poor baby had no family, his brother was gone and now he was likely going to spend his life in foster care because parents didn’t want a sick child. It made Farzana sick to her stomach.

“Doctor, are you alright?” asked the twenty-seven year old brand new junior cardiologist, spotting her starring at the window to a room where William slept.

“Oh, Doctor Kaplan, thank you, I’m alright.”

“Cute little guy,” replied Doctor Kaplan, poking his head beside her, “He going to be alright?”

“Medically, yes,” replied Farzana, “He’s barely a year and has asthma. Poor thing is all alone. No family.”

            “No family? How’s that possible?”

            “He was found on the street, and Captain Stacy of the NYPD has been unable to find any records of him. He even contacted New Jersey and Connecticut Police.”

            “No family? What will happen to him?”

            “He’ll be released in two weeks to CPS who will put him in a foster home until, or if he can be adopted.”

            “If?”

            “Indeed,” replied Farzana, “Child Services informed me that children with Asthma are less likely to be adopted.” She gave the baby one last look, “Good day Dr. Kaplan.”

            “Good day,” replied the young doctor.


	2. The Kaplans

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last chapter before we get to the twins. I promise, next chapter will be dealing with how the twins grew up.

After a difficult day at the Hospital Doctor Jeff Kaplan returned home to his wife of one year already home. But as hard as he tried to forget the day that had come, his mind returned to Dr. Farzana Nayar and that baby.

            “Jeff, I’m in the kitchen,” called Rebecca Kaplan, and boy did he love the sound of Rebecca Kaplan, that would never change. He walked in and gave her a soft kiss on the cheek. After finally moving out of their cramped apartment into a house they were finally able to afford he enjoyed taking in all the space of their home.

            “Hello beautiful,”

            “How was the hospital?”

            “Busy,” His mind was elsewhere.

During his next shift and for another long week of work, instead of heading outside for his break like he normally did, he decided to pop by the kids’ ward. He was so little, it was late and the nurse had just given him a bottle, but he was all alone. He had been moved to a little crib now, hooked up to monitors.

            “Hey buddy,” he looked at the chart, “So who named you William? Was it your mom?”

            William’s eyes opened and he cooed at the stranger in front of him. “She must miss you a lot.” He lowered his hand and the baby grabbed his finger, pulling it close.

            “Dr. Kaplan,” He turned to see Dr. Nayar.

            “Sorry Doctor, it’s just…when you mentioned…I can go…”

            “No, it is alright. I was just surprised to find you here.”

            “I just…He really doesn’t have any family?”

            “Not one that can take care of him.”

            “So he will go to a foster home?”

            “Yes, Rebecca Blake of CPS has one picked out for him in Queens.”

             Jeff spent the rest of the time he wasn’t in surgery on autopilot, his mind stuck on different things. At lunch he was surprised by his wife, who brought him lunch. How she managed to find time to escape her busy practice to surprise him would astound him for years to come. She had light brown hair, always worn short for ease and her glasses rested firmly on her nose.

            The first time he saw her on that busy college campus he stopped in his tracks. She was incredible, strong, sure of herself, and unafraid to put anyone in their place who deserved it. They sat down in a crowded cafeteria and Jeff and Rebecca dug into their Panini.

            “How was surgery?”

            “It went okay,” he replied.

            She looked him up and down, always being able to read him. Something was on his mind, like the time he thought he failed Professor Gorgon’s Genetics final and got an A, or the time he was pondering medical school and didn’t have the heart to tell her he applied to schools in California…but ended up staying in New York. Or the time he was sweating through the dinner where he proposed. She didn’t have the heart to tell him she had figured it out three days before hand.

            “Jeff….what’s on your mind. You’ve been out of it all week.”  

            He tries not to smile but fails, “Eat and I’ll show you.”

            Rebecca raised her eyebrow at him but continued to eat her lunch.

            “How’s work?” he asked her.

            “Not bad, my assistant is fine, the boss is treating me well and that’s pretty much all I can tell you.”

            “I think your boss likes you.”

            Grinning Rebecca replied “Maybe” and took another bite of her Panini, “She gives me a good lunch break, and isn’t rude and seems to treat me well, so no complaints.”

            Jeff smiled adoring at her.

            After lunch, as promised, he took her up several floors. Rebecca questioning why he brought her to a floor he didn’t work on, to a ward he had little to no experience in. Then she saw it—him. A little bundle of adorable with dark hair and blue eyes smiling happily at them. Rebecca walked inside the room and stood above his crib.

            “Is he sick?”

            “Asthma,”

            “Oh you poor thing.” She saw his hand and read the name on the bracelet, “William, huh? Well hello William, I’m Becky.” The baby smiled at her, “Where are his parents? Are we allowed to be here?”

            “As I am a doctor here, I think so.” Rebecca stayed for as long as she could before having to return to work, but she came back the next day, and the next. She now knew the nurse who worked the day shift, Linda and she met Dr. Nayar whom she really liked, but after a week of this Nayar caught her singing to the baby. She read to him, she talked to him, she did everything short of feeding and changing him.

            “Um…Rebecca,” began Dr. Nayar, “I just wanted to let you know that William is being released tomorrow. His case worker has a foster home picked out for him.”

            The color drained from Rebecca’s face. She stared silently for a moment, “O…of course…um….”

            “Rebecca, can I talk to you and Jeff? Outside?”

 “Yes...um…Jeff just went to get coffee.”

            Farzana and Rebecca stepped out into the hallway and waited until Jeff joined them.

                        They sat down in the rough chairs that stood in the hallway.

            “Look, you are both young and I can see that you really seemed to bond with William and I think he likes you too. I want only the best for this boy. He deserves it and seeing you two here—have you thought about having kids?”

            “We talked about it. We always wanted kids…just in a few years,” said Jeff.

            “Have you thought about adoption?”

            “That’s…um a big step,” said Rebecca, “We’d have to discuss this…and isn’t it a very rigorous process, I mean between the background check and placement and finding a child…”

            “No, I’m sorry, let me clarify, would you consider adopting William?”

            “Can we discuss this?” asked Jeff.

            “Of course, I have to make my rounds and I’ll be back in an hour.”

            Rebecca stood up as soon as the doctor had left and began pacing, her heels clicking with every step that she took. She had already began to love that baby that much was true and obvious. Children with disabilities had a lowered chance of being adopted and were more likely to be shuffled from foster home to foster home and end up with other problems, social anxiety, trust issues...if she had the chance could she save a child from that fate?

            “Well we can certainly afford this,” said Rebecca folding her arms and leaning against the wall, “And we have the room…I guess now it’s a matter of…are we going to do this? Because if we do there is no going back, Jeff. I…I think we both already love that baby so much.”

            “I think the decision is made Beck, and you know I’m not one to argue when I know you’re right.”

            “…and since I’m right…only almost all the time…” said Rebecca as Jeff got up and went to hug her, “I think I should call my sister.”

            “I think you should,” Jeff kissed his wife, “I’ll hunt down Farzana; go back to work; call Rochel.”

            Rebecca nodded and went back to the office. Don, her eager-to-please assistant was already standing ready to hand over the file of her next patient. She instructed him to push everything back a half-hour. She had a very important phone call to make.

            Her sister was Rachel Dreyfus, Rochel (ROH (FLEGM) EL) to her family, had graduated with honors from Harvard Law School two years ago and was working for Melcher, Cohen and Cohen. She was engaged to Charlie Levine and she seemed pretty happy.

            She dialed Rachel’s office and a young sounding male assistant picked up, “Ms. Dreyfus’s office.”

            “Leslie, this is Rebecca, can you please put me through to her.”

            “I’m sorry, Mrs. Kaplan, but Ms. Dreyfus is very busy at the moment; may I take a message.”

            “I’m sorry, but this is really important can you please put me through to her.” He could hear the tension in her voice. There was a pause before Leslie returned, “Putting you through now.”

            “Rivkah, mamela, what can I do for you?” asked Rachel.

            “You can start by sounding a little less like mom.”

            “Sorry. What’s wrong, is everything okay? Leslie said it was urgent.”

            “Jeff and I are…we’re going to adopt a child.”

            “Uh…why?”

            “Because…it’s a long story, but the baby needs a good home and….can you please just do this one thing for your big sister.”

            Rebecca could hear the wheels turning in her sister’s head, “I’ll be at your place at six.”

            Two hours later Jeff called her saying that he had spoken with CPS and the woman who would be his case agent who worked under Rebecca Blake, Dana Rivers, and Jeff then forwarded all the information to Rachel.

            Getting home from work was both exciting and frightening, Jeff arrived home first after picking up a pizza for dinner. Rebecca practically flew into their modest home, with Rachel following closely behind.

            Rachel Dreyfus had the same brown hair, but unlike Rebecca who wore it short, Rachel’s hair was always long and always in a bun with one strand in the front that refused to be pulled in. She wore a blue suit with an above the knee skirt, and high heels.

            Sitting at the kitchen table, a pizza between them, and paperwork and information spiraled all over the place.

            “This is not going to be easy,” began Rebecca, “Because you’re new to this, this won’t be quick. There’s a background check, a heap of paperwork to fill out, finance and home check, and that…if we rush it, and given the circumstances we want to…we can get it done in a couple of months.”

            “Months…”

            “If you were already approved for Adoption, it would be easier. We would just have to meet with the case worker, she would do a secondary home check and this baby…William?” Rebecca and Jeff nodded, “Would be yours, but this is the hardest part. After this is done, you can take William home, but the adoption itself won’t be finalized until a Judge approves it which can take up to a year. But given both your families….and I can pull a few strings…it will be done, there’s nothing to worry about.”

            “So what’s the first step?” asked Rebecca.

            Rachel reached into her bag and dumped a stack of papers, “Fill these out, first.” She excused herself to use the restroom. When she came back Jeff and Rebecca were in the process of filling out the mountain of paperwork.

            “There’s a one week turn around for the paperwork, you’ll also need to get letters of reference from your bosses, and then another two weeks for the background check. I already spoke to the case agent so she knows you’re interested …after the paperwork clears we can get you into their training course…and you’ll need to get a room prepared for William.”

            That Friday, Jeff and Rebecca hunted down their bosses and did paperwork all night. On Saturday they went shopping, looking for the right color to paint the room, some furniture. Everything that was on the list Jeff’s mother gave them.

            A happy young lady helped them pick out a nice soft shade of blue, to go with the nice dark brown crib they had gotten. All time outside of work was spent on building the perfect room. They debated between elephants and turtles, puppies and kittens and ended up with a bear that was dressed like Captain America and a few other selected toys that they hoped their soon-to-be-son would love.  

            William meanwhile had been placed in a foster home with a couple who specialized in asthmatic children and was doing well. Dana Rivers was getting daily updates from his foster parents. When she got the call from Blake that a family was interested in adopting William she almost choked on her coffee. There was no way. When she asked if the parents knew about the asthma, she informed Dana that they did.

            Then the names came in Jeff and Rebecca Kaplan, Cardiologist and Psychologist, late twenties, no criminal record…some experience with children, but none of their own as of yet.  

            There was an appointment scheduled for Sunday for a home check and she wanted to know what kind of naïve couple she was going to meet. Bold, thinking of adopting, their financials were decent…recommendations were fine. But a couple doesn’t just randomly decide to adopt…and as Blake told her, they specifically wanted William.

            Dana arrived at their small home, modest, but decent, trust fund, she thought…rich people, wanting to tout their fancy child that they healed from sickness, probably have a maid too. She did not look pleased at first when the door opened, but lightened up when Rebecca and Jeff introduced themselves and showed her around.

            Jeff had one of his old friend who now worked in pediatrics inspect the house, on top of a regular inspector to make sure the house was safe. Rebecca had a plan mapped out with Jeff’s schedule for the month and how she had requested time off, after which her parents would be helping her take care of the baby. Then Dana asked:

“…why William?”

Rebecca did not hesitate for a moment before she replied, “Because no one deserves to be alone, everyone deserves a family.” She also added how they met William at the hospital and just couldn’t help but love him. That had swayed Dana.  

 Dana left pleasantly surprised. They weren’t spoiled, they were lucky of course, well off, but they did not flaunt it, nor did they have anything other than William’s best interest at heart.

            Dana then headed to Mr and Mrs. Candid’s home where William was staying. Mrs. Candid welcomed her in and took her to William, who was in a room with two other girls of roughly the same age.

            “William will be leaving soon.”

            “To another home?” asked Mrs. Candid.

            “A permanent one.”

            “Adoption?”

            “Nice couple, under 30, but eager and they really seem responsible.”

Another month went by before Dana called them and told them that she would be dropping of William with some additional paperwork. Rachel was the first one there and a very happy baby arrived shortly after. He was now officially listed as being 11 months, his bright blue eyes smiling up to his happy new parents. But little did Rebecca and Jeff know what they were getting into. William was going to take them on one hell of an adventure.

 


	3. Growing Pains

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter deals with how Billy and Tommy grew up, showing little snippets. Next chapter's events will be rather obvious after this one.

Growing up, Tommy Shepherd figured out early on, about the age of five, that he did not look like his parents, or his grandparents, or anyone in the family really. It was in elementary school that he found out what that meant, he found the word, “Adopted.” His teacher had explained that sometimes people gave up their kids to be taken care off by strangers for various reasons.

Tommy certainly never felt like he lacked for anything. His parents weren’t bad exactly. They just didn’t understand him outright. His Mom was sweet and would bake cookies and gush about her special boy. His dad would play ball with him and they’d watch the game together. It was a good life, but Tommy often felt like he didn’t fit in. There was something missing in his life.

            Strange things would often happen to him. When he was three, out of nowhere he started crying and saying that his arm hurt. Mary checked and found nothing wrong. When he was seven he cried himself to sleep for no reason, wrapping his arms around his body, as if trying to create a shield. He needed someone, someone wasn’t there and they were supposed to be. His parents dismissed it, and ignored the empty feeling in Tommy’s chest. But Tommy was always waiting for someone to finish his sentence.

            When he turned twelve something changed, he awoke one Monday morning and shuffled to the bathroom half asleep. Morning sucked! He put some toothpaste on his toothbrush and looked up at his reflection.

            A scream echoed across the NJ house. Mary and Frank both ran in to see what had scared their son and gasped themselves. Their son’s hair was completely white.

            “Tommy what did you do?”

            The boy looked on the verge of tears, “I didn’t…I don’t know…it…it wasn’t like this when I went to bed….I swear.”

            Mary held him, “It’s alright we’ll figure it out.” First stop was the doctor’s office who took blood and a week later called to say that everything was normal. It motivated Frank and Mary to finally tell Tommy he was adopted. He nodded and didn’t tell him how long he had known.

            “Do you know anything about my birth parents?”

            Frank and Mary shook their hands, “Our case agent didn’t tell us anything, just that there was a baby that needed a home.”

            “It’s possible this is a genetic condition,” explained Mary, “Some people’s hair changes colors when they get older. My Great Aunt Cynthia had hair like the sun and one day it started darkening. So maybe the same thing happened to your Great Aunt or Grandfather or Uncle or something.”

            Tommy tried to be hopeful, but then things started changing. His parents grew more distant towards him, less games of catch, more responsibility. It wasn’t that they didn’t love him anymore. It just seemed that at that moment they realized that despite the fact that he was their son, he wasn’t. He was someone else’s too. That small difference of hair color began to affect them greatly. So Tommy began to grow more isolated and as he reached his thirteenth birthday everything came to a standstill.

            His parents had remembered his birthday and had given him a video game and a book. But then the arguing started over the usefulness of the video game and how Tommy didn’t need to turn into a delinquent. He had run out of the house when they started talking about how his bleached hair as likely some kind of defectiveness instead of the genetic anomaly they had mentioned before.

            He ran as fast as his legs could carry him until he realized he had no idea where he was running too. When he stopped he saw the Golden Gate Bridge and stared in shock. How long had he been running? How had he gotten to California from New Jersey? Checking his phone he saw that not even five minutes had passed since he left his house.

            Logic dictated he turn around and head back. He did. He ran back, but only made it to Pennsylvania before he fell and rolled all the way to Philadelphia, his body was not yet used to running so much so fast.

            He pulled out his phone, which somehow survived, “Hey Mom,”

            “Thomas where are you? We’ve been worried sick.”

            “C….can you come pick me up.”

            “Of course, where are you?”

            “Um….” He looked around, the night was well lit and the Liberty Bell looked incredible under the moonlight, “Philadelphia.”

            “PHILADELPHIA?!” He could hear his father roaring on the phone, “How did you get there?”

            “I…” His voice trembled, “I…I’m…n…not sure….exactly…I’m…I’m scared…” And he was. He was all covered in bruises when he had landed, but somehow was alright. By eleven he was home, but not in bed like his parents expected. He was on the internet.

            _Sudden super speed?_ That sounded idiotic. But there were people all over New York running around with powers....maybe he had powers too. How else did he get from New Jersey to San Francisco to Pennsylvania? Why did teleportation pop into his head? Something…had to be up.

            Google revealed something called mutants. Right, people who upon reaching puberty discover they have special abilities. Did his parents give him up because he was a mutant? Or were they hoping he could have a better life because they were mutants?

            The next morning, over breakfast, with pancakes loaded up on his plate and his mouth full he announced.

            “Mom, Dad…I think I’m a mutant.” And all hell broke loose.

An hour or so away, in a cozy house on the upper west side lived Billy Kaplan, was a small child and he had asthma until he was ten. He grew up with loving parents. When he was three he fell and hurt his arm, after that Billy developed an imaginary twin that remained until he became a big brother. Rebecca asserted that it was likely that Billy was lonely and that having a sibling to take care off allowed him to let go of his imaginary sibling in favor of a real one.

Billy learned of his adoption at the age of five too when he was told he would be a big brother.

            A few months later he wondered, “Mommy, where are all the picture of you when your tummy was big the first time?” asked Billy as Jeff had taken another picture of a glowing wife and her large stomach.

            “Uh, you see honey,” said Rebecca as Jeff sat him down on his knees, “Mommy didn’t carry you in her tummy. You were adopted.”

            “What’s that?”

            “It means that you were so special that we decided to take you home with us because we loved you so much.” Said Jeff.

            “So you’re not my real mommy and daddy?”

            “Oh yes we are,” added Rebecca firmly, “You are our son and we love you so much.”

            “But where is the mommy that had me in her tummy?”

            “We don’t know honey.”

            “Didn’t she want me?”

            Jeff pulled his son closer to him, “Of course she did buddy, but mommies aren’t always able to take care of their babies no matter how much they want them too.

            He was six when Jacob was born and eight when Simon was and he never felt like he didn’t belong. But sometimes…sometimes he would have dreams where there were two boys just like him, happy. He liked being a babysitter and taking care of his siblings…at times like this though he felt like he wasn’t the oldest. There might have been someone missing…always someone missing.  

            Billy’s powers first showed up when he was preparing for his Bar Mitzvah. To top it off, his Uncle Jerry and Aunt Lenora were visiting from Israel with his cousin Dasi, a tiny girl who was closer to Jacob and Simon in age and barely spoke English.

            The soon-to-be-man was waiting outside his synagogue after a truly horrible lesson with the Rabbi. He barely knew the alphabet, how was he supposed to be able to read an entire Torah portion? That was nuts. “I wish I knew Hebrew.” He repeated over and over and over again with his eyes closed, until he heard his Mom pull up.

            When they arrived home, little Dasi, with her beautiful red curls ran up to him.

            “Billy, Shalom,”

            “Shalom, ma shlomech?” (How are you?)

            “Beseder, Toda,” (Good, Thanks)

Rebeca looked from herself to her brother-in-law, to her niece and her son. The two launched into a conversation until Lenora interrupted.

            “Billy, why didn’t you tell us you knew Hebrew?” asked Lenora.

            Billy looked taken aback. He had been speaking Hebrew. Maybe whatever Rabbi Feldstein had said had sunk in…had it sunk in?

            “I…I don’t know…”

            Seventh grade, puberty, it all brought about a string of new sensations and people and expectations. It also brought distress and emotions and kids were cruel. Billy came to an obvious realization that he was not interested in girls, which led to the bullying. On a horrible day Billy had slammed the door to his bedroom and just sat and vented and screamed into is pillow.

            He lifted his head and his eyes grew wide, items in the room were floating and there was a blue energy that was emanating from him that seemed to be doing it.

            “M…..MOM!” He screamed as the energy continued to come out.

            His father had run in and looked on in shocked silence. The bewildered, deer-in-the-headlights look that Billy had on his face prompted Jeff to help him off the floating bed. They left the room and as soon as they had shut the door, there was a thud, as if an earthquake had hit that room.

            As the dust cleared, his room was a mess and he spent the next week sleeping in the guest room. After his room was set, his first night there, his parents sat down with him.  

            “Billy, sweetie…”

            “I’m a mutant. Right?”

            Rebecca nodded, “Do….do you hate me?” asked Billy. She sat down next to him on the bed and hugged him tightly.

            “Of course not,” said Jeff, sitting on Billy’s other side.

            “We love you! No matter what!”

            After that Billy’s parents became a bit overprotective as he tried to get a handle on his powers. At first, he assumed he could move objects with his mind, but he soon realized that it was energy and he could do anything. It accidentally happened when he was at home and accidentally wished that all his homework was done and a pile appeared, all finished, essays, math homework, etc. His father checked it over and smiled, praising his son on a job well done, not realizing how the work had been done. So…magic. That was the only explanation for what he could do…Magic! Billy had magic.

            So he had some fun, wishing for new comics, and other things. However he quickly realized that with great power comes great responsibility when he accidentally made his brother disappear. After hyperventilating for fifteen minutes Simon reappeared and Billy swore to be much more careful with his powers.  The realization of the damage he could do with his powers was frightening, causing him to not exactly alienate, but distanced himself from his few friends. 

            Tommy on the other hand was not lucky, when he accidentally made the toaster explode his parents had enough. They called Rebecca Blake and in tears Tommy was put in a car and sent to a foster home. He didn’t understand how this could happen. The home was in the Bronx and it was kind of cramped and his foster parent was an old lady, but she was nice at least. He also had to admit that it could have been worse, at least his parents only sent him back…oh, wait, they weren’t even his parents anymore, but at least they sent him back and not to some mutant research/torture facility. Those existed.

            His first day of school was hell, somehow everyone already knew he was the weird foster kid and the white hair didn’t help. But there was an eighth grader who was at least nice.

            “Hey, you’re the new kid, Thomas?” the guy had shouted, some bald kid.

            “Tommy,”

            “Cool, I’m Eli,” he replied, “You can sit with me, if you want?” The cafeteria was loud and everyone already seemed to have friends and someone else to sit with. Eli’s table was empty, so why not? He plopped his pile of burgers on the table and sat down, “Wow, that’s a lot of burgers. You want a heart attack?” Was this guy 14 or 40?

            “High mebabolism,” replied Tommy, a mouth full of burger, “I can eat like five of these.”

            “Geez, you should try out for the track team.”

            “Psht…pass,” Tommy was keeping his powers under lock and key for as long as he could, “Not interested. I don’t like people.”

            Eli laughed and a friendship was created. He seemed to like Tommy even if at times he was distrusting, or antisocial, or when he would stare off into space as if waiting for someone to appear. Maybe he was waiting for his birth parents, or for someone to come and take him away.

            Still, they hung out, had sleepovers and Grandma was happy that Eli actually had friends. His Grandpa seemed to like Tommy and the two would talk when Eli was helping his grandmother with something.

            Tommy was shuffled around a few foster homes, but everything came to an interesting turn on a hot New York day when the teen, bored out of his mind and two seconds away from running away from his foster home, decided to go to the mall for the day.

            That same day Billy Kaplan and his parents were heading to the mall to buy the three boys new summer clothes.


	4. Meeting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Will try to slow things down from here on in.

            The Kaplans were walking around the mall, Jeff was holding Jacob’s hand, while Simon was holding on to Rebecca.  They entered one of the bigger department stores and split up, with the younger boys going to the kids’ section with Rebecca and Jeff and Billy going to look at the clothes for teens. At the same time Tommy was roaming around, being bored while Eli was away at science camp. Who goes to science camp before they start high school? Apparently Eli did…the nerd. It left the speedster in a newly minted foster home, his sixth one, all alone stuck in yet another shitty home.

            Billy managed to find some new jeans and a great Stark Industries shirt before Jeff let him go and look at the books and dvd section. He browsed around, nothing really interested him; there was a Special Edition copy of the Princess Bride though which had a really pretty cover. But he wasn’t going to get it. That wasn’t his favorite movie or anything...nor was it one of his favorite musicals either…nope…not at all…

            “Excuse me,” he called to one of the workers of the store, “Do you have the Sound of Music Special Edition DVD?”

            “I can check, if you’d like?” replied the nice girl.

            “Please and thank you.” The girl headed to the back room as Tommy zoomed by and stopped her.

            “Where are your video games?”

            “Three isles down…uh….didn’t you have dark hair?” Tommy was already gone.

The clerk check out the department and returned with a copy of the Special Edition of the Sound of Music. Billy was now looking at some of the Justice League DVDs.

            “Here you are.” She handed the kid the movie, “Did you find the video game isle?”

            “I don’t play video games,” replied Billy.  

            “But…you asked…and your hair was white?”

            Billy raised an eyebrow. The girl just shrugged and walked away. Well that wasn’t true, Billy played video games on occasion, but he usually had to do homework, or there were comic books to read, or Jacob and Simon were playing.

            Tommy ran through the entire store and stopped when he saw some kid looking at copies of the Princess Bride and Sound of Music. What a dork, he thought. He zipped around, disturbing the area.

            The other boy felt something brush past him, electricity flowing through the touch, Billy turned and Tommy froze to his spot.

            “Dude,” said Tommy with a sigh at having been stopped.

            “Rude much?” asked Billy. Tommy turned around and the two gasped. They were identical, except for their hair. The two stared for a while before looking over one another as if looking for the trick mirror, the magician’s hand, the gag in the joke.

            The twins screamed before they yelled in unison, “Why do you look like me?” Tommy was freaking out…so he had parents, real parents and they had given him up and kept his brother.

            Rebecca and Jeff had been in the area and heard the screams. Rebecca ran ahead as Jeff stayed with the younger boys and her own gasps echoed as she saw the two.

            “Who are you?” asked Billy.

            “Tommy…uh…Shepherd.”

            “Billy Kaplan….you….we….” began the dark haired twin.

            “Uh, I gotta go.”

            “Hold it young man,” came the voice of Rebecca Kaplan, “No one is going anywhere.” The twins turned to face her.

            “Who’s the scary lady?” asked Tommy.

            “My mom…”

            “Are you…um…were you adopted?”

            “Yup,” replied Billy, “Oh...look, here’s my dad and my brothers.”

            “T…Tommy was it?” asked Rebecca. The white haired boy nodded, “Feel like getting some lunch?”

            Why would he go with some strangers and some weird kid who looked like him? Maybe they were Mutant hunters or creepy SHIELD agents, or who knows what else. No…he just had to run.

            Billy grabbed Tommy’s arm, as if sensing that he was going to bolt and he looked at his twin. That jolt of electricity resurfaced and somehow everything was going to be okay…somehow. Everything made a little bit more sense in that moment.

            They only headed as far as the food court and sat down. Jacob and Simon stared more at Billy and Tommy then at their food.

            “Billy has a twin?” asked Jackob, “Cool, I want one.”

            Jeff shook his head, “Mom, Dad. Why didn’t you ever tell me I was a twin?”

            “Short answer, we didn’t know,” said Rebecca, “Tommy must have been adopted fist because you were in the hospital.”

            “Hospital?” asked Tommy, “What was wrong with him?”

            “It was the Asthma, right?” asked Billy. Rebecca nodded.

            “We were told that babies with asthma had a lower chance of getting adopted and we…we just knew we loved you the moment we saw you.”

            Tommy looked out of place…well no more than usual, but he certainly felt like he did.  This kid…his twin…Billy had loving parents, doting parents, parents who looked like they would fight for him. He was lucky.

            “Tommy, do you want to call your parents? Let them know where you are? I mean we wouldn’t want them to worry,” said Jeff and handed Tommy his cell phone. He didn’t take it.

            “Uh…look, you’re probably really nice and even if Billy here and I are related…I don’t really…you probably…” Tommy stood up, “It was nice to meet you.” Tommy walked away before running off at super speed.

            Billy ran after him but quickly realized he had lost Tommy, so he must have had powers too. He turned to a secluded corner and wished to find his twin. He wished it over and over again and was teleported to Philadelphia, where Tommy sat on the ground, staring at the Liberty Bell.

            “Wow…how’d you get here?” asked Billy. Tommy jumped up.

            “How did you find me?”

            “I…used my powers to find you.” Said Billy, “This is cool, I’ve never been to Independence Hall.” He staggered a little and Tommy had to stop him from falling, “I’ve also never teleported before…usually if I tried to find someone, there’s usually a blue energy. Can you teleport?”

            Tommy let go of him, “No, I just run…really fast…a lot.” He sat back down on the ground and Billy joined him, “You’re bleeding,”

            Blood began pouring out from Billy’s nose. He pulled out a tissue, tossed is head back and put it to his nose, “Happens sometimes when I use my powers too hard…I’ve only had them for a little while and I shouldn’t have done something this big but…” Billy let the nosebleed pass and the two sat there in silence for some time, taking in the tranquility of the place.  

            “So…how come you didn’t want to call your parents?” Billy finally asked, his head returning to its normal position.

            “Starting with the hard questions, I just met you.”

            “Yeah, but we’re twins.”

            “We could just be two kids who look the same.”

            “We’re both adopted….we’re clearly both mutants….” Billy gasped and bolted up, “They…please, tell me they didn’t…..”

            “Didn’t what?”

            “Hurt you for being a mutant?”

            “Nah,” said Tommy casually, “They just sent me back like a shitty Christmas present. I’ve been in Foster Care for a year now, in the Bronx.”

            Billy was silent for a moment and was interrupted when his phone rang.

            “William Kaplan where on earth are you?”

            “It’s okay Mom, I’m with Tommy we’re….uh…” he looked around, “In Philadelphia.”

            “What are you doing there?” came Rebecca’s voice.

            “Uh….well…the thing is…you know all the things that I can do…and what that makes me.”

            “A mutant? Yeah…..” Realization hit Rebecca, “Oh…of course…and what about Tommy’s parents um...?”

            “Not like you did…at all.” Tommy stared at Billy trying to hear the person on the other end.

            “That bad?”

            “Yup.”

            “Okay, I think there are some things that your father and I need to discuss. Can you give us a couple of hours and then make your way home together, without overexerting yourself? Or will we have to come pick you up?”

            “I think between the two of us we can do it.” He hung up and turned to Tommy, “Anybody you want to call?”

            “Nope why”

            “Apparently my parents need to talk so…want to actually get a bite to eat? We have a couple hours.” Since they had not actually eaten at the food court.

            “Want a Philly Cheese-Steak?”

            “Uh…sure...”

            “Hold on,” said Tommy with a grin and he ran to the nearest place and grabbed two. He then thought about ditching Billy and running to Canada. But he found him once….and maybe…just maybe he had a chance to not be all alone. He returned pretty quickly and handed it to him.

            The dark haired twin took a bite and smiled, “That’s good,”

            “Won’t steer you wrong…well not where food is concerned.”

            “So...why Philly and why Independence hall?”

            “On my way home after my powers first showed up I landed here and there was something just…kind of quiet and calming about being here….I come here when…when I want to get away, or when the other foster kids are driving me nuts.”

            “Why not just runaway then?” Tommy swallowed and Billy took another bite of his Cheese-steak.

            “Well…I always just figured that my birth parents would one day come looking for me. So I thought I’d stick around so they can find me.”

            Billy shuffled his feet, “Maybe…we could find them together.”

            “You’d want to?”

            “Well yeah, why wouldn’t I?”

            “You have a family…”

            “Doesn’t mean you’re not either…I want to know who I am and where I came from as much as you do. Maybe we can hang out sometime…you know without one of us running away to Pennsylvania?’

            “Hey, could be worse, at least I didn’t run to…Europe or something.”

            “How could you….oh…” Billy got it. They finished off their lunch and walked around a little bit. It was a bright day and he and Tommy seemed to have a lot in common. Billy had nightmares when he was a kid of a great evil taking him away from a mysterious woman he assumed was his birth mom. Tommy had the exact same dream, but neither could effectively describe their mother’s looks. She was…there was something magical about her, but that was all that there was and something evil from the person who was trying to take them away.

            “I think we should go back, I don’t think I can teleport though, that took a lot out of me.”

            “No worries little bro,” said Tommy as if it was the most normal thing in the world, “It might take a bit longer, but if you hop on my back, I should be able to get us there…or close. Where are we going?”

            “Upper West Side,” Billy wrapped his arms around Tommy’s neck and the other grabbed his legs and took off. They had to stop around New Jersey and walked a little before continuing on with a couple more stops to rest. Running by himself was one thing, carrying his little brother proved to be a lot harder. After they got to the part of Manhattan, they walked the rest of the way at a fairly easy pace, it gave Tommy a chance to relax after carrying Billy, and helped Billy’s oncoming dizziness. Running that fast was disorienting. But cool never the less.

            They arrived at Billy’s house hours later, as Jacob and Simon were taking backpacks out of the closet by the front door.

            “What’s going on?” asked Billy.

            “Mommy says Jake and I are going to Bubbe and Zeidy’s house for a week.”

            “Why?” asked Billy; Tommy raised an eyebrow.

            “What’s a Zeidy?”

            “It means grandfather,” explained Jacob “They just said there was a lot of stuff to do and we were going to go have fun with them so that we’re not bored here.”

            “Mommy’s in the living room, we have to go put out the clothes we wanna take to Bubbe’s.”

           

            Tommy was already backing away to run, but Billy quickly grabbed his hand. Entering the living room Billy saw that it was quite crowded, there was a blind gentleman with a cane, a woman in wheelchair, as well as his parents and Aunt Rachel and a guy in a police uniform.

            “Uh…what’s going on?”

            “Boys…have a seat,” suggested Jeff, “This is Billy’s Aunt Rachel, Mr. Mathew Murdoch, and this is Rebecca Blake…and this gentleman here is Officer Burdick from the NYPD.”

            Tommy returned Billy’s grip on his hand and the two held on tightly. They sat down on the couch and waited.

            “So…” began Billy’s mom, “We’ve all discussed it in detail and we have come to the conclusion that it is very important that you two not be separated again. Twin studies show—the point is that you two are brothers and no one is going to keep you away from each other. That’s a promise.”

            “Before I finished my paralegal certification I worked for CPS. I also assigned you your case agent, Tommy. I've have spoken at length with her…as well as your adopted parents.”

            “They’re not my parents,” said Tommy, “I don’t have parents.”

            “The Shepherds…as Rebecca and Jeff just found out, have relinquished all parental rights to Tommy,” explained Mr. Murdoch.

            Billy squeezed Tommy’s hand, “We’ve spoken to your Aunt Rachel Billy, and Mr. Murdoch and Ms. Blake and we’ve decided to take Tommy in.”

            The twins exchanged glances, “R…really?” asked Billy excitedly. Tommy looked shocked.

            “I mean you’ll have to share a room, but we’ll be taking custody of Tommy.”

            “That’ll be great.”

            “Yeah, I always wanted a little brother,” said Tommy ruffling Billy’s hair.

            “Hey, we don’t know who’s older.”

            “Sure we do.” Tommy turned to Jeff and Rebecca, “Um…t…thank you Mr. and Mrs. Kaplan…this really um…are you sure?”

            “Of course we’re sure. You deserve to have a home with people who will love you.” Tommy tried not to cry and Billy draped his arms around him.

            “But wait….everyone’s roles now make sense…so why is Officer Burdick here?” asked Billy. 

            “I was the one who found you,” he explained.

            “Found us?” asked the twins in unison and smiled.

            “You two just appeared in the middle of the sidewalk, a block away from the precinct. The late Captain Stacy made sure you were taken care off, but I was the one that saw you, two boys, wearing blue onesies, with dark hair and bracelets that had your names on them.”

            “You had dark hair?” asked Billy

            “Yeah…woke up one day and it had turned white. So…do you know anything about our parents?”

            “Nothing, Captain Stacy, another detective, and I tried, but we couldn’t find anything. We just assumed someone had abandoned you.”

            “So Tommy never has to go back to his Foster home?” asked Billy.

            “No,” cut in Matt Murdoch, “We’ve made arrangements for Tommy to come and stay here. Your case worker will be dropping things off soon. You don’t have to go back there.”

            Tommy’s things arrived before dinner and they started setting things up and moving Billy’s things over. It seemed like the day lasted forever, it all happened so quickly, meeting Tommy, going to Philly, Billy’s parents taking custody of Tommy…the day didn’t seem real.

            Jeff had said, as they finished moving Billy’s things over to one side of the room that they would go out and get Tommy a proper bed the following day.

            That night, as Tommy lay on a temporary, blow up mattress next to Billy’s bed, staring at the ceiling he couldn’t help but smile. Nearly a year ago his adoptive parents had deserted him, now…now he had a brother and an entirely new family that seemed to take great care of each other. What had changed? How did his luck change so drastically?


	5. Middle School Days and Jewish Adventures

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tommy learns about Judaism and some scenes of them in Middle School.

            That summer ended up being the best in Billy’s life. He had a twin, a real twin, and one that seemed to understand him better than anyone else. Sharing a room ended up being awesome, despite a few hick-ups.  They learned a lot about each other, though there were some things Tommy refused to talk about and found they were a lot alike and not just in looks.

Jeff dropped the two off in front of the Middle School building and turned to the back.

            “You boys ready?”

            “Yes,” they said at the same time, something that had become a bit of a habit with the two, among other things that were part of the new norm.

            “Remember Billy, Tommy needs to go to the front office, and make sure he finds his classes okay.”

            “No worries Dad. We got this,” said Billy.

            “No sweat Jeff,” called Tommy as they headed into the building. As soon as Jeff drove off the enthusiasm left the twins and nerves set in. Billy had always liked school, but he was not so fond of the students. Tommy just never liked authority and people telling him what to do.

            “This is it,” said Billy standing in front of the stairs, with tons of students passing them by.

            “Yup,” replied Tommy. With a deep sigh the two walked into the building together and turned to the main offices.

            A nice secretary at the desk allowed them entryway into the front offices.

            “Hi, I’m Billy Kaplan and this is my brother Tommy Shepherd, he’s new.” As Tommy was only in a somewhat permanent foster home with the Kaplans and not adopted, he still had his last name.

            “Yes, we’re aware,” said another lady who was not as friendly, “Does your brother know we have a policy against hair dye here?”

            “Sorry Ma’am, I am o’naturale,” replied the speedster, “No dye.”

            She eyed him, “It’s true,” added Billy. She did not look happy and piled on first day of school paperwork for both of them, a few forms, health related and a slew of other forms, “You’re both in Mr. Tuttle’s class. Get going.”

            “Tuttle?” asked Tommy as they exited the front office.

            “Yeah, he’s the Social Studies teacher. He’s pretty cool. Mom called ahead and made sure we were in the same homeroom,” Tommy chuckled, “She wants you to have a smooth adjustment to a new school and having me around will help…or so she thinks. ”

            They walked up to the third floor and into the classroom with other students slowly coming in, with a roster hanging on the door. They arrived and looked to the students standing around, or looking for their seats.

            They ended up in the middle row, sitting next to each other and sat down, Tommy by the window and Billy next to him. Mr. Tuttle, a tall, stalky man with a pocket protector stepped forward.

            “Welcome back all.” He was a very tall, thin man, with a beard, wearing a button down and a purple tie, “Please let us welcome Thomas Shepherd. He’s new this year to our school.”

            Everyone looked around trying to find this new student, Billy looked over and saw Tommy slump into his seat, “Who apparently is feeling rather shy. No worries. Let me give you your class schedules and we can go over some of things before you head off.”

            After they got their schedules Billy and Tommy learned they had most of their classes together, with two exceptions. Billy had French when Tommy had gym and Tommy had Spanish while Billy was in Drama. It allowed them for some time apart.

            First class was English with Mrs. Persimmon, who was kind of a tough lady, especially when dealing with a bunch of barely teens who had better things to do. Still the two thirteen year olds entered the class and found seats together towards the back.

            “Billy!” called a kid. He turned and saw Jimmy Stidham, one of his friends and who would be going to Upper East High with them next year

            “Hey Jimmy. Cool, we have English together.” But Jimmy was not looking at Billy. He was looking at Tommy. Tommy raised an eyebrow. Jimmy turned to Billy. 

            “Wow…I thought you looked weird with white hair.” He turned back to Tommy, “How did…who are you?”

            “Tommy. This nerd’s older brother.” Billy rolled his eyes. They didn’t know who was older. But Billy had always wanted an older brother…so maybe Tommy was older and Billy’s desire for an older brother was just a manifestation of him missing his lost sibling. Whatever! He was content to let Tommy be older.

            “You have a twin?” Jimmy finally said to Billy, “Dude that is so cool.”

            “Yeah,”

            “You can like totally switch places and take tests for each other and…”

            “Wow, slow down there,” said Tommy, “I mean technically probably, we could, but with my hair…”

            “Yeah what is that all about?” asked Jimmy.

            “Genetic anomaly.” Supplied Billy.

            “What does that mean?”

            “It means you should have paid attention in Biology,” Tommy laughed. Jimmy did too.

            “Sassy Billy? Wow…you know this reminds me of your Bar Mitzvah where…”

            “Where nothing happened,” pressed Billy. Jimmy grinned.

            “What’s a Bar Mitzvah?”

            “I’ll tell you after school.”

So as far as first days go, that one wasn’t too awkward. Once they were back home after that first day Tommy asked him again, as they sat in their room reading Billy’s old comics.

“So what’s a Bar Mitzvah?” repeated Tommy.

            “Its…well we’re Jewish, so it’s kind of like this Jewish thing where you read from this book…which is technically a giant scroll…in Hebrew and it symbolizes our steps towards becoming men. It’s a rite of passage for all Jewish boys…and girls, but they call that a Bat Mitzvah, at the age of 13.”

            “Huh,” said Tommy, “So how did yours go?”

            “Easy peasy,” replied Billy. Tommy eyed him, “…okay, don’t tell Mom this. But...the first time my powers showed up, it wasn’t when I turned my room upside down like Mom and Dad think.” Billy paused and moved to Tommy’s bed so that he wouldn’t be too loud, “I…kind of made myself fluent in Hebrew with my magic.” Tommy stared, “It happened a month before the room incident. It was an accident though. We had family from Israel visiting, and my cousin was little and didn’t speak English…and I had a really stressful lesson with the Rabbi so I just…wished I could just speak Hebrew.”

            “That…” began Tommy, “Is really nerdy. I mean wow….cool, but still nerdy.”

            Billy shook his head with a smile resting on his lips, “So what’s with you and Jimmy.”

            The younger twin bolted upright, “That is completely irrelevant.”

            “What are you gay or something?” asked Tommy. He had meant it jokingly. Billy bit his lip, “Oh…damn…Billy I was…I mean, I didn’t mean anything by it okay.” He saw as his twin pulled his knees up to his chest and jumped forward, “Its fine if you’re gay…I mean you’re my brother….right?”

            Billy nodded, “I hadn’t really said anything to anyone yet. You….you’re kind of the first to know. Just…just don’t tell anyone, okay.”

            “Cross my heart and hope to die,” said Tommy, “Twins stick together man,” He draped an arm around his twin, “and hey, more girls for me.”

            As September moved closer to October Tommy came head to head with the first major Jewish holiday, the New Year. He wasn’t really sure what Rebecca had meant when she asked if he wanted to go to a temple. He shrugged, said sure and now he was sitting in a place called a synagogue. All the prayers were in a funny language and everyone kept telling him to have a Happy New Year. It wasn’t December.

            “Um…Billy,” asked Tommy pocking his twin in the side, “Why does everyone keep saying Happy New Year?”

            “That’s because it’s the New Year of the Jewish calendar.”

            “You guys have a different calendar?” Billy nodded, “And this Rush Hashmana is the New Year?”

            Billy giggled, “Rosh Hashana, the H is silent.” Tommy tried again and nailed it, “It’s a time to look ahead, begin a new, things like that.”

            They sat down kind of near the front, there was a podium on the side and a giant case of some kind in the middle of the stage with lots of those funny letters.

            Rabbi Feldstein walked up with Cantor Messer. They went through the prayers, there was some talking about the meaning of the New Year and then they blew the shofar thing.

            “What’s the point of the shofar?” asked Tommy.

            “Its ram’s horn and it’s really important to blow it because it’s a call for us to remember everything that has happened so that we can move on into the coming year.” Tommy nodded.

            There was a reception afterward with lots of different sweets for a “Sweet New Year,” replied Billy, “So the New Year is good and filled with good things.” 

            Neither Billy nor Tommy really liked honey, but an apple dipped in honey wasn’t too bad to the taste buds.

            “So are all Jewish holidays so….complicated?”

            “Pretty much,” chimed in Simon.

            “As Dad says Jewish holidays follow a simple pattern of they tried to kill us, we survived so let’s eat already,” added Billy.

            Tommy looked uncertain.

            “Stick around long enough and you’ll see,” said Jacob.

By the time Sukkot came around Tommy was well prepared for the food and prayers and traditions that came with it. It was all still confusing to him, but he started to grasp the concept that the Jews had one G-d and he was a decent guy for the most part, depending on who you asked. They didn’t believe in that Jesus guy and that everything basically sucked for the Jews. But each holiday had a rich history and an enlightened outlook on the world.

The twins had grown into a comfortable pattern of school attendance, homework, and general childish willfulness. Tommy was more interested in sports, and the twins did bond over their shared interest in Football, albeit for different reasons. They also found they excelled in different classes, allowing them to help each other on assignments. Tommy succeeded in all the science classes, anatomy, chemistry, and physics. Billy on the other hand was better at history and English. The two at times were complementary.

The boys graduated from Middle School without a problem. But everything would change as high school began and the question of their birth continued to stir more questions than answers. New problems awaited the teens that would have life-changing consequences for them.

 

             


	6. Freshman Year Part 1

High school, they’re the best years of a teenager’s life…or so they say. For some high school is a nightmare, while others bask in the glory that this level of education affords them. Whatever the outcome, everyone has a different high school experience. And like it or not, high school for better or worse shapes us in one way or another.

Billy did not know what to expect from high school, but he had Tommy with him and that was all that mattered to him. With Tommy he could tackle on anything. The doors to the school creaked open and the two, along with a slew of other freshman, and Billy’s friend Jimmy entered the building, heading to the gymnasium.

“We got this little brother,” said Tommy happily draping an arm around his brother, “High school is where girl are finally hot, if you’re into that,” he used his free hand to point to himself, “And guys finally hit puberty if that’s what you’re into.” Tommy pointed to Billy who swatted the pointing hand away, “High school is where anything can happen.”

“Good or bad,” supplied Billy.

“Look for the best,” encouraged Tommy.

“Expect the worst,” added Billy.

“When did you get so pessimistic?”

“It comes with the territory, 5000 years of Jewish persecution makes me weary of new environments.”

“But you might not even be Jewish?”

“I am though. Rabbi approved Jewish kid,” Billy supplied, “Because I’m adopted, I was asked if I wanted to be Jewish when it came time for my Bar Mitzvah. And I said yes.”

As they turned the corner, getting closer towards the gymnasium Billy wondered, “Did missing Christmas bother you?”

“Nah, I kind of like your holidays. They’re more fun.” Billy smiled as they entered the gym, “Are we going to be in the same homeroom again?”

“I hope so,” countered Billy, “If not, we can talk to mom about how high school is a tough adjustment for kids and it would be detrimental were I to not be in the same homeroom as my twin.”

“And it would work too,” laughed Tommy. They waved to Jimmy and sat down on the bleachers together.

The twins were not in the same homeroom, however they had quite a few classes together. It gave them enough time apart to be their own people. Gym was a class the twins had with their…well Billy’s friend Jimmy. For some reason Tommy never particularly liked the kid. Okay so maybe it had something to do with Billy’s minor crush on the guy, but something about him rubbed Tommy the wrong way. He couldn’t put his finger on it. Not that he was about to tell his brother that his friend/crush irked him.

As first days go, it wasn’t the worst. They came back to school relatively happy and fell down on the couch to watch TV. The Scarlet Witch was absent, but the other Avengers were holding strong and fighting. Something kept zooming past the screen.

“Look, another speedster.” Said Tommy. Billy only saw a blur.

“How can you tell?”

“I don’t know…I just can. Maybe it’s a speedster thing.”

A few hours later the younger Kaplans came home with Jeff.

“Your mom has a late appointment, what do you guys say to Chinese?” asked Jeff.

“Sounds good dad,” the twins replied in unision, at first not realizing that Tommy had said it to. Jeff smiled, making no other indication that he had heard.

Rebecca arrived home exhausted. Billy and Tommy were watching TV with Billy’s brothers, as the older boys did their homework. She said something to Jeff who grimaced and followed Rebecca outside. They brought in two boxes before walking outside once more.

“Odd,” thought Billy and went to peer through the living room window to see what was going on. Tommy remained focused on his reading for English. There were the usual cars parked outside, the minivan and the Kia his Mom drove to work. There was a Prius on the curb with two people in it, a large men with a beer belly and a frazzled and annoyed looking woman who did not look like they wanted to be there.

His mom was shouting angrily at them as his dad attempted to restrain her.

“I think Mom’s about to lose it on some lady,” called Billy. Jacob ran over first and Simon followed.

“She looks like a troll,” said Simon, “Tommy come look.”

Tommy had finished the book already anyhow, speed reading was a cool bonus to his power. Less time wasted on homework. He threw the book onto the couch and walked over.

“Who are those guys anyway?” asked Jacob.

“My parents,” said Tommy quietly. Billy turned to look at him.

“The people who adopted you?” Tommy dropped his head and gave a faint nod, “Those people are not your parents. They abandoned you. They don’t deserve that title.”

“I wonder what they’re saying?” said Jacob.

“Let’s find out,” suggested Billy and opened the window slightly.

“There’s one more box,” said Mary Shepherd.

“Good, I’ll take it,” said Jeff.

“But you should know,” countered Frank, “Tommy’s not a normal kid. He’s a freak and there’s no doubt he’ll become a criminal.”

“An expert on criminals now are we?” asked Rebecca as Jeff went to grab the last box, it was the smallest of them all, just a shoebox really, “You abandoned your son.”

“He’s a mutant, how did I know he wasn’t messing with our minds.”

“UH because you were his parents and you were supposed to love him unconditionally.”

“That kid should be in jail.”

“You should have never been able to adopt him.”

Frank and Rebecca continued to argue until Jeff began to yank Rebecca inside.

“Mark my words, he’ll end up killing someone and maybe it’ll be one of your real kids.”

“They’re all my real kids. Clearly you don’t understand the meaning of parenthood. We took it all, now get out of here before I call the police.”

THUD! Billy closed the door and ushered the younger boys back to the cartoon. He then pulled Tommy into their room and sat him down on his bed. Tommy’s face said everything, a mixture of horror, fear and anxiety.

“They’re wrong.”

“Is that a fact?” asked Tommy.

“DUH!” said Billy, “You’re my twin! That automatically grants me the ability to know you better than anyone else.” Referencing a conversation they had over the summer about shared life experience, “You’re not going to hurt anyone.”

“How do I know Jeff and Rebecca won’t send me back? What if I do end up hurting her real kids?”

“And who’s that exactly?” asked Billy, “Jake, Simon? Me? What makes us real? Come on. You are just as much a part of this family. And you heard mom. Not to mention, did you see dad’s face light up when you didn’t call him Jeff?”

“He did look really happy.”

A moment later there was nock on the door. Jeff and Rebecca came in and sat down on Billy’s bed to face the boys. They had boxes that they placed on the floor between the two beds/

“So...we just had a visit.”

“From Frank and Mary? Yeah, we saw,” said Tommy, “and heard…some of it anyway.”

“They came to…um…drop off the rest of your things. I called them several months ago and apparently they just now decided to bring it. It has some toys you played with, blanket, books, and I think the small one has pictures. Why it took so long or was even necessary? I don’t know…We can go through it if you want, see what you want to keep.”

Tommy nodded.

Jeff cut in. “We want you to know that nothing you do will ever make us desert you or send you back. We’ve filed the papers to adopt you.”

Tommy and Billy smiled. Tommy moved first and hugged Jeff and Rebecca, the first time he had ever done something like that. He then took the small box and looked through the pictures…they had cut themselves out of them….on purpose. They were pictures of just Tommy fishing, with a headless male figure, or at the park holding on to one arm of a woman. Another one was of Tommy in a crib, with his name on a bracelet.

“Mom do we still have my bracelet. The one that had my name on it?” asked Billy.

“It’s in your baby book.” Billy nodded thoughtfully.

“The rest is clothes. But I’m fairly certain you’ve outgrown these. There is some toys as well.” Said Jeff, pulling out a few action figures.

 Billy smiled, “And you made fun of me for being a nerd.”

“Hey, I’m just a fan,” explained Tommy, “And the Flash is awesome. He has super speed.”

“Eh, I’ve always been more of a Robin fan,” said Billy with a shrug. Tommy grabbed the Flash action figure to his chest.

“Heathen,” the four burst out laughing.

Jeff and Rebecca stood up, “Alright, we’ll sort through all of this later. Did you boys eat?” They nodded, “Homework?” head shaking, “Okay, we’ll leave you,” said Rebecca.

When the door closed behind Jeff, the twins looked at each other for a moment before Billy pulled out a small book tucked behind his action figures. It was blue and bound with ribbons. Right in the cover was the name William, written with glued-on letters.

He opened it to the first page and pulled out the bracelet from the pocket, tossing it to Tommy.

“It’s just plastic.”

“Don’t you think it’s odd that someone took the time to take care of us for nearly a year before they abandoned us?”

“Are you saying we weren’t abandoned?” asked Tommy. He looked the bracelet over, turning it every which way. It was just a basic bracelet with Billy’s name engraved on it.

“It just doesn’t make sense.”

“If we weren’t abandoned why didn’t anyone ever look for us?”

“How do we know they didn’t?”

There was a silence, “Once we have a better handle on our powers we should try to find them.”

Billy nodded in agreement with his brother. The past year they had gained an understanding of their powers and helped each other out. Tommy helped Billy to calm down when his magic was taking over and Billy was there to slow Tommy down and translate his super speed speech. But they still had a long ways to go. For one, Tommy’s abilities to speed up molecules to the point of explosion had not manifested itself yet and Billy’s electricity was still being overpowered by his magic. Since the day they met Billy hadn’t used his powers on such a large scale as teleporting.

Tommy wondered how long they could go before their powers needed to be let out. Would they be sent to the Xavier school? Did they know the twins were mutants? Their powers had shown up a bit earlier than the average mutant and repeated use had not made them candidates for a special visit. An odd occurrence, supposed Tommy but he didn’t share it mostly because he did not want to leave the Kaplans, and knew that Billy wouldn’t either. He was more an Avengers fan.

Things were changing quickly and the good, the bad, and just the moronic were coming faster than they could anticipate.

 


	7. Mom and Dad and Bullies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter is a little all over the place, but it sets up the things that will happen next.

Being twins, even with different hair colors makes it very difficult for people to really understand the term. At times it seemed that Billy and Tommy were still confused as to what that meant. For one thing it meant sharing a room, just like his younger brothers did and they overheard Jeff and Rebecca talking about getting a bigger place. Other times it meant being made fun of. Tommy got teased a bit for his hair, but when he pointed out that it made him look like Quicksilver most of the kids seemed to agree. Tommy just has a confidence that Billy didn’t and bullies seemed to ignore him. Billy was less lucky.

The CPR course finished in Gym, a few people had indeed noticed Billy and Jimmy making out in the middle of class. Mouth to mouth was not supposed to involve that much mouth to mouth. Rumors spread, as rumors do regardless of whether they were making or simply practicing CPR. The reactions to said rumors were as one would expect.

Waiting at Billy’s locker as the final bell rang, Tommy stood in pants and a comic t-shirt he had stolen from Billy…or did he? The two had been switching clothes back and forth for over a year and sometimes it was hard to tell whose shirts were whose. Looking at the Captain America symbol it was probably Billy’s if only because of Billy’s minor crush on the star-spangled man.

Billy approached and hid his face inside his locker. Tommy looked over and sat Billy stuffing things into his backpack, his head covered in his hoodie. Being one for curiosity Tommy pulled on the back of the hood and his eyes turned from curiosity to anger.

On Billy’s usually clean face was a giant shiner, right under his eye, “What happened?” asked Tommy his fist clenching, his eyes darkening.

“No big, walked into a door.”

“Bullshit,” replied Tommy. Billy looked up at his twin. He could see a fire behind his blue eyes, “Who did it?”

“I told you I fell.”

“No, you said you walked into a door. So what was it?”

Billy finished putting his books into his bag and closed the locker, not saying anything. Tommy followed him onto the bus home. Tommy kept prodding and pocking. Billy continued giving lavish excuses.

As the twins entered the apartment, completely empty of anyone Billy magically pulled a steak from the freezer and popped it on his face.

“Billy, seriously, what happened, who hit you?”

“I told you to drop it. It’s fine. I’m fine.”

“Are you kidding?” asked Tommy, “Look, as your older brother it is my job to protect you. What am I going to say to Mom and Dad if they ask what happened to you or why I didn’t stop it?”

Billy’s annoyance grew into a smile and for a moment Tommy had not realized what he had said. Tommy enjoyed playing the older brother role, a lot, even if they didn’t know who was older. Tommy just felt older and Billy let him if only for the amusing moments. But that’s not what caught Billy’s attention or what caused the smile. For the first time in the year or so, little more, since Tommy had come to live with them, Jeff and Rebecca became not Mr. and Mrs. Kaplan or Jeff and Rebecca, but Mom and Dad.

“Don’t change the subject,” continued the speedster, though his brother had said nothing. Billy grinned widened, “We’re not done talking about this.”

“You’re not. I am.” Billy slumped onto the couch and put on the tv. Fox News was covering the recent fight that was happening in Queens where the Avengers were fighting several monster looking creatures, “Look, there’s the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver.”

Tommy grunted in annoyance at his brother but sat down beside him to watch their favorite Avengers. Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver were teammates and Billy had read somewhere they were brother and sister. Billy wondered which one was older. Scarlet Witch probably, she seemed the more level-headed of the two.

“Come to think of it, your powers are a lot like Quicksilver’s.”

“Haven’t heard that a hundred times. I’m way faster though.”

“And you’ve got the whole weird, white hair thing.” Added Billy.

“So you’re saying you and I are Quicksilver’s kids? Come on Billy that makes no sense. Next you’ll tell me we’re also related to Magneto because he has white hair.”

“It does seem kind of silly and I read that children of mutants aren't guaranteed to have the same powers as their parents.”

“Besides, if we belonged to an Avenger, they would have totally kept us, or made sure we were at least adopted together. There’s no way they would have just dumped us. That wouldn’t be very heroic of them.”

Billy couldn’t argue with that logic. When Jeff and Rebecca returned home and asked Billy about his face, Tommy angrily declared that he fell. No one believed it. But yet, for some odd reason everyone just accepted it and let it go. Rebecca eyed him some more, kind of like she did at the twins’ first birthday party when the cake Jeff forgot to pick up from the bakery magically appeared on the kitchen table. She knew more than she ever let on.

“Why do you think our parents gave us up?”

“Maybe our mom was a teenage runaway or something.” Threw in Tommy, “Like she had us and tried to keep us but couldn’t.”

The two remained on the couch casually theorizing, not realizing Jeff and Rebecca were listening. They waited until the boys changed topics before they made themselves known.

That night, with the entire house asleep and Rebecca curled up with the latest psychological study she turned to her husband who was reading a fictional book and jotting down notes on everything it got wrong in relation to health and medicine.

Jeff was deeply engrossed in his book and his writing, while Rebecca kept rereading the same line over and over again.

            _A study of multiple sets of identical twins….._ she couldn’t concentrate to read anything else and dropped the study on the bed.

“Something wrong?”

“Do you think Tommy accepts us as parents?”

“I think so, why, is something bothering you?”

“It’s just them talking about their birth mother…”

Jeff put down his book an grabbed his wife’s hand, “Hey, you know that children often become curious about their birth parents and origins. It’s natural for them to be curious. You’re the one who said that. Especially given the circumstances of their adoption.” He pulled her close to him, "You're their mother, and them being curious and looking for answers will not change that." He kissed her head softly. 

The following day, a Saturday with everyone sitting at the table eating French toast. Jacob and Simon were already munching when the late sleepers of the family strolled into the kitchen, sitting across from Rebecca and Jeff.

“Sleep well boys?” asked Jeff placing food on both of their plates.

“Tommy snores.”

“Do not.”

“Do too.” The twins bantered. Simon and Jacob giggled through their food.

Rebecca stopped their bickering and poured orange juice into their cups. Tommy as usual ate more than everyone else. His speedster nature, as Rebecca quickly learned meant that he had to eat more. She packed extra protein bars into his lunch whenever she could and made she he knew than an extra helping of everything was always available. Well Jeff did most of the cooking.

“Dad this is the best French toast ever.” Muttered Tommy and both Jeff and Rebecca smiled brightly at Tommy’s comment, “Oh…s…um…”

“Well of course it is son,” replied Jeff, “I made it, from my mother’s recipe.” Billy looked amusingly at his brother.

“Tommy finally called him dad,” whispered Simon to Jacob in astonishment.

“Which reminds me, bar any unforeseen complications, by the end of the year, you’ll be officially adopted,” chimed in Rebecca and Tommy smiled sweetly, stood up and did something neither Jeff nor Rebecca nor Billy though he would ever do. He hugged her.

Back at school on Monday, Billy was walking down to his Math class, when he was shoved by Kessler into a locker. Nothing had been said, just the shove. Nursing his shoulder he entered the class and took the seat by the window.

Tommy walked by the classroom briefly on his way to Earth Science and noted the bruised shoulder. He returned to class and mulled over his brother’s second injury. What did Tommy know? He knew that someone was bullying Billy. The reason and culprit for this was, for now, unknown. But he was going to find out.

When class ended Tommy was gone in a second, hurrying to Billy’s Algebra class.

“What are you doing here?” asked Billy walking out of the room.

“Walking you to your next class. That way if you start falling and bumping into things I can save you.”  

Mostly Tommy wanted to make sure no one hurt Billy and to potentially gage who did it. They passed tons of students on their way to the next class. No one particularly made any odd movements or motions towards Billy.

Towards the end of the hallway Tommy spotted Kessler. He wasn’t on any of the sport teams, did practically nothing in class, yet somehow still thought he was cool. As they passed him on the turn, Kessler continuing straight, and the twins turning to the History Wing, he saw Kessler glare and Billy flinch.

“Shoot, I left my history book in my locker, be back in a minute, well, less.”

“Tommy no don’t….” But Tommy was already gone before Billy could remind him not to use his powers at school.

Kessler arrived in his personalized study hall, or tutoring with Ms. Merkel, the German immigrant, math teacher who was probably the nicest person in the entire faculty. But who had no patience for jerks. Conveniently, Kessler was the only one in the room. Tommy zipped in, creating a vortex and watched as Kessler freaked out, his eyes closing, and started screaming, as the air started leaving it, until suddenly it stopped.

“Stay away from the Kaplan kid,” snapped a voice that was gone by the time Kessler looked up. Quick. In True Tommy fashion he was already back at Billy’s side before they walked into History.

“What was that all about?” asked Billy.

“Nothing, I forgot my book,” replied Tommy pulling it out from his bag. Billy’s strong gaze did not soften.

The teacher started the class, “Alright everyone. I want you to pick a relative, or,” he looked at the twins, “A historical figure you admire. I’d prefer a family member, who made some kind of impact in history, however small. Moving to another country and starting a business, participating in a protest, if you can’t find someone in your family, go with a famous person. You will give an oral presentation about your person in class next week? Any questions? No. Excellent, let us look at the Holocaust in more detail shall we, beginning with the Nazis in Austria…” Half-way through the class, the teacher began showing some film clips from movies like Schindler’s list and a flashback scene from the Woman in Gold.

Billy’s eyes began glowing blue, his hands shaking and he was already an inch floating out of his seat from fear. Tommy grabbed his hand, pulling him down, “What’s going on with you? I thought you had better control than this?”

“S…sorry…I’m just…I don’t know. This stuff hits pretty close to home…I mean Jews, mutants, persecution. Have you heard about what happened in Genosha?”

“Well maybe you should do your report on Magneto.”

“Maybe you should,” countered Billy taking slow breaths.

“Mr. Kaplan, Shepard, something you want to share with the rest of the class.”

“Yes Mr. Michaelson, can I take Billy to the nurse, he’s looking a little pale?”

“Of course,"

Billy and Tommy exited the classroom to Tommy mutters of idiot teachers. The nurse’s office was a floor below and contained two beds. One bed was already occupied when they arrived. The nurse was older, white hair and was blocking the view of the other visitor as she finished taking his pulse.

“My brother here um…”

The nurse turned to Billy, “Panic attack?”

“Could have been.” Explained Billy, “But I don’t have panic attacks, or anxiety…or I didn’t think I did. My Mom’s a psychologist.”

She nodded and pointed to the bed next to the occupied one. Once the nurse turned, she finally saw Kessler.

“What happened to him?” asked Tommy as Billy sat down. 

“Came in and fainted, suffering from light headedness. Oddest thing, like he didn’t get enough oxygen. Poor dear.”

“That’s weird,” said Billy looking at the sleeping Kessler, “Does he have asthma?”

“Nope.”

“Huh,” muttered Tommy, “Must be just having a really bad day.”

After leaving the nurses office, Billy mainly receiving water and a pat on the back, Billy pulled Tommy into the bathroom. He checked to make sure it was empty before putting the trashcan by the entrance.

“What was that?” asked the younger twin, “Did you do something to Kessler.”

Tommy put his hands up defensively, “What does it matter? He was the one who hurt you, didn’t he?” Billy gave a microscopic nod, “See, now he got a lesson in what happens when you mess with my brother. If he ever does it again I’ll punch him in the face.”

“I can handle it.”

“You getting bruises and being thrown into things is not handling it. If you think I’m going to be okay with my brother getting bullied…”

“Please, just let me handle it. And don’t abuse your powers. Do you know what could happen if anyone at school found out about you?”

Tommy stood silently for a moment, “Fine, you handle it. Or I will.” He moved the trashcan out of the way and exited. Billy ran after him.

“Are you going to tell mom?”

“No, even though I should.” Tommy put an arm around his brother, “At least use your powers.”

“And then what? What if it backfires, I don’t have the control you do.”

Tommy looked at Billy worriedly, this would not end well, he just knew it.


	8. Hanukkah

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For Tommy it's officially the best day of his life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a little short because I have some major changes coming for my poor twins. Next chapter includes special guest stars. I'll give you a hint. One is Jewish and the other's mental. You'll never get both.

“Alright thank you Mr. Kaplan for that riveting report about your uncle’s work in the Israeli parliament. Mr. Shepherd you’re next.”

            “For my report, I decided to do it on Magneto.” Said Tommy proudly and the students began murmuring.

            “You couldn’t pick a relative, Mr. Shepherd?” asked the teacher.

            “Nope. Sorry, I decided to go with Magneto.”

            “The guy who keeps attacking everyone in a purple helmet?” asked Jerry in the back of the class.

            “Yup. There’s not much known about his background, but what is significant is his demands. He wants mutants to be able to live free and open in society. He believes that mutants are the next step in evolution and they will one day outnumber humans.”

            That got Rebecca and Jeff a call from their teacher, wondering why Tommy felt the need to talk about a Mutant terrorist in front of the class.

            The year progressed in frustration, mostly Tommy’s as Billy explicitly forbade him from interfering in his situation. It wasn’t hard to figure out for the young man that his twin had been responsible for the attack on his bully.  Billy, to Tommy’s irritation had not yet done anything about the bullying himself. Winter came and Hanukkah was greeted amid a warmth of light.

            The two youngest of the family were happily playing with their new toys. Jacob had gotten a cool action figure and a book he had wanted, and Simon was playing with a cool replica of the jet used by the Avengers that could float on a small stand.

            Tommy and Billy got presents too in the form of books and things they had asked for.

            “Alright everyone,” announced Jeff, “I have one last present to give.” He pulled out an envelope form his briefcase and handed it to Tommy.

            “What’s this?” He opened it up at the speed of light and read through it. His face turned into a grin and he began flying around the room, running up the walls and through…through the wall. He stopped, hearing his name called and realized he had gotten to the kitchen without the door ever opening. He looked around and was back in the sitting room in a second.

            “Tell us,” begged Jacob, “What is it?”

            “It’s a letter confirming that my adoption hearing on Friday.” 

            The younger Kaplans cheered and threw themselves on Tommy, parading around the room in cheers.

            “Does this mean we’ll get a day off from school?” asked Billy looking at the letter.

            “Yes, everyone is getting a day off from school,” said Rebecca, “Which means you get to start your winter break a day early.” No one complained about that.

            Judge Thornwood had not been on the bench long, still young, a man who fought tooth and nail for the position and who had a soft spot for adoption cases, having been adopted himself. He was tough on parents, kind with kids and particularly enjoyed adoption cases of older kids.

            Rebecca had worn a blue, conservative dress with sleeves, as recommended by her sister to the court room and the boys all wore nice shirts and ties. They stood outside the Judge’s office with Aunt Rachel in her signature red suit, ready to take on anything. Rachel was happy doing corporate law, but was still an attorney for the family. Sometimes it was more of a pain, like when their great Aunt Deborah kept changing her will every other month. But this. This was going to work out.

            They were allowed to enter the chambers at 10:00 am on the dot. The young Judge Thornwood, with his ginger hair and soft smile.

            “Mrs. Rachel Levine, your honor, representing the Kaplan family and Mr. Tommy Shepherd.” Rachel had changed very little, career drive, wife, mother and kick ass attorney.

            “Wonderful,” said Thornwood, “Everyone have a seat and we’ll get started. I have the report of the home-study and everything seems to be in order. I just have a few questions.”

            “Mr. Kaplan, Mrs. Kaplan, you have two small children, and two full-time careers, how do you do it?”

            “We don’t work every day, our schedules make sure that we can pick Simon and Jacob up from school. On the days that we can’t, I ask Billy and Tommy to take them home,” explained Jeff.

            The judge made a note, “I see…I also see you were granted temporary custody. Can you explain the circumstances of that in your own words?”

            “When we found out that Tommy and Billy were twins, we couldn’t let them send Tommy back to his foster home. He’s family.”

            Looking through the report, “Mr. Shephard, I have to ask you about the circumstances of your previous adoptive parents.”

            “Um…when my hair turned white…I think it hit them that despite the papers they signed  ...the Shepherds…that I wasn’t really theirs. Things kind of became tense. One day we had a fight, I ran off, I then had to call and ask Frank to pick me up. It pretty much ended there. I don’t think they liked that I was different.”

            “Billy, I’d like to ask you, it says here that you and Tommy have been sharing a room, how is that?”

            “It was kind of weird at first. But I like it better this way. Tommy’s the best older brother.”

            Tommy’s face remained stoic.

            “Is he older?” asked the judge.

            “We don’t really know. But I let him think he is.” Everyone laughed, “Now I can’t imagine the room without him.”

            “Mr. Kaplan,” continued the Judge, “You indicated that you are thinking of moving?”

            “Just getting a bigger place, there’s some nice houses available outside the city.”

            “It’s important for the development of children and particularly adolescents to have a safe area in which to grow and explore themselves,” explained Mrs. Kaplan.

            “I can understand that,” continued the Judge, “And Tommy, do you want to stay with the Kaplans?”

            “I do,” said Tommy, “I don’t really like my first adoptive parents, but Jeff and Rebecca don’t feel like another set of foster parents or adoptive parents…they’re just parents and they love me.”

            “Well that’s all I needed to hear. By the power vested in me by state of New York, I can officially sign this paper and your adoption is final. Congratulations Kaplan family.” He hit the gavel mainly for effect. Billy jumped up and hugged his brother, the younger Kaplans followed, “Congratulations Mr. Kaplan.”

            The paperwork was signed and they had a huge party that weekend with Bubbe coming over to pinch Tommy’s cheek and congratulate them. The entire thing had him practically vibrating with glee.

            “We’re so lucky you and Billy met at the mall,” said Rebecca as they cut the cake, “Now we have another son.”

            “Bet you wish I was a girl,” teased Tommy. Rebecca laughed and shook her head.

            “Not even for a second. We love you just the way you are.” She hugged him tightly.

            “You’re the best parents ever.” Tommy whispered.

            Billy just watched happily sitting next to his grandmother, “Well,” began Bubbe, “Now that Tommy is officially family we can start on a new project.” Billy gulped, “Finding you a nice Jewish girl.” Tommy snorted into his soda.

            “Uh…I’m just barely in high school Bubbe. I don’t have time for a girlfriend.” Tommy giggled in the background.

            “It’s good to focus on studies. But remember to have fun.”

            Billy turned to Tommy before looking back at his Grandmother, “Trust me, with Tommy around I’m having nothing but fun.”

            Tommy grinned and appeared beside his brother, “Bubbe you have nothing to worry about. I make sure Billy doesn’t spend his life reading comic books on his bed.”

            Bubbe hugged the speedster in what was probably the tightest hug he had ever experience. A lot of love filled the tiny, cramped three bedroom apartment.

            “Well…maybe he is too young,” supposed the older woman, then stood to get everyone’s attention, “Tonight ends our festival of light and festival of miracles. We live in a strange world and it keeps getting stranger.” There were a few grunts of agreement, “I am so happy to have Tommy here as my official grandson. Granted it doesn’t change anything, we already thought of him as family. Not it’s just legally binding. So…Tommy, I’m sorry. You’re stuck with us. You lost your chance to escape.” Laughter rang throughout the house, “It is by G-d’s hand that you two found each other and Baruch Hashem that you did. If there are no objections. I think we should have Tommy light the candles tonight to mark a new beginning of his journey.”

Hanukkah ended on a positive note for the twins, with lots of family gathered around, silly. Winter break had been the best and Tommy returned to school happy and ready to face anything the world threw at him. And boy did the world have a surprise for him.

 


	9. Mutant Overload

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter came up quickly. Not sure how many more will follow. But here is the next chapter.

Ah spring, with winter over and Spring Break still too far away, young, puberty struck children everywhere felt the itch of hormones. Not all sexual. For some this itch was a reaction to changes happening in their body or changes simply happening around them. For Billy Kaplan it was a little of both. His powers were still growing and as Tommy suspected, much harder for his brother to control. Thus Billy tended to focus more on his electricity and flying and less on the magic. The magic part was proving to be a lot to handle.

            It began in the library, with Billy reading Rick Jones’s book about his experience with different superheroes. Currently he was on the chapter about Captain Marvel and the friendship that Jones shared with the alien. As he got to the part about the Kree Captain being captured by the Super Skrull the book was snatched out of his hand by Kessler and two of his equally dim witted lackeys.

            “Watcha reading Kaplan?” asked Kessler, flipping through the pages and showing to his friends.

            “Well, it’s written right there. If you’re having trouble reading it, I’d be more than happy to help you.” He threw the book across the library floor. Billy jumped up and began walking towards the bookshelves, perhaps he could hide from Kessler.

            “You making fun of me gay boy?” asked Kessler walking closer. Billy jumped out of the way of his fist, accidentally putting himself in a corner.

            Tommy had arrived in the library at the perfect moment, hoping to convince his brother to come outside with him. Seeing Kessler he was in front of Billy in the blink of an eye.

            “Stay the hell away from my brother, I am not going to tell you again.” Snapped Tommy, his anger boiling. This had been going on all year and the breaking point had been reached a long time ago.

            “Tommy no,” began Billy.

            “Don’t you Tommy me,” snapped his brother back, “I’ve had it. If this bridkeh putz doesn’t stop, and you’re not going to do anything about it, I am.” Tommy, for some odd reason had picked up all the best Yiddish words from their Bubbe.

That’s when it happened, so quickly, the anger that had accumulated, it all came crashing down in the form of an explosion radiating from behind the twins, exposing the library to the outside air. Billy started falling, only caught by the sheer power of his will. The other students ran from the building.

            “Billy,” yelled Tommy and looked to the edge of the hole, seeing a floating Billy with a panicked look on his face. He floated back up and landed next to his twin

            “We need to get home….now.” Tommy nodded, grabbing Billy and running as fast as he could home.

            Jeff was off that day, his rotation schedule giving him the day off left him doing little things around the house, cleaning, dusting, and house hunting online. He jumped out of his seat at the kitchen table when the twins landed. Billy struggling to maintain his balance…and his lunch.

            “Boys, what do you think you’re doing home?” asked Jeff, “You should be in study period.” He looked at his watch.

            “D…Dad.....school…bullies…wall…explosion…powers…bad,” began Billy while Tommy ratted off at super speed what had happened. Billy sat down and let Tommy vent in super speed.

            “Alright, so what I got out of this was…Tommy tried to protect Billy from bullies…and somehow the wall behind you exploded by either one of your powers?” The twins nodded, “I think I best call your mother. Don’t worry boys,” Jeff stood up, “Everything will be alright.”

            Meanwhile in Westchester country something was not right, “Professor,” called a young woman with dark brown hair, “I think you better take a look at this.”

            Wheels rolled towards the girl and a large computer, “What is it Kitty?”

            “It’s so weird, I thought it picked up a mutant signature…but it just vanished.”

            “Do we have a confirmed mutant?”

            “We have two potential suspects for mutants….twins, last name Kaplan…oh, they’re probably Jewish,” cheered the girl, “Can I go on this one Professor?”

            “I think that would be lovely,” replied the wheelchair bound bald man, “We’ll go tomorrow, after school, speak to the parents.”

            That night, with Jacob and Simon tucked into bed by eight, the rest of the family sat down in the living room. “So…from what I understand…after speaking with your principal, no one was harmed and it looks like the wall just exploded on its own. A few shelves and books were the only casualties. They’re not ruling on whether it was an accident or not. But I think you boys should stay home tomorrow.”

            “Good call there,” mumbled Tommy.

            “There is one other thing,” began Rebecca, “I need to know what you both were doing at the moment of the explosion.”

            “I was in the corner,” said Billy, “I just wanted it all to stop and for everyone to calm down.”

            Tommy sighed, “I was so mad and I knew they wouldn’t stop. They never stop and then…oh man…I…” tears were swelling up in his eyes, “It was me, wasn’t it? I did that. I didn’t mean to, I swear, I’ll be good I…just…d…don’t send me away.”

            Rebecca crouched down and grabbed Tommy’s hands, “Nothing you do will ever make us do that. You are stuck with us.” She winked, “And it’s okay. You can’t control all your powers yet.”

            “Oh…wait…one of the new med students has a Physics minor. He was saying how certain mutants can speed up or slow down molecules and how speeding up molecules can make things explode,” explained Jeff, “You can speed up your own molecules and molecules of other things too.”

            Billy sat up, “That explains how you vibrated through the kitchen door.”

            “Don’t worry boys, we’ll handle everything.”

            “Well…at least now moving doesn’t sound so bad,” began Tommy. Jeff and Rebecca turned pointedly at him, “Bad timing. Sorry.”

            The following day, Rebecca took the younger boys to school, asking her mother to pick them up, while she stayed home with the twins. It was then that out of the blue a knock sounded on the door. The twins hid in their room, praying that it was not the police coming to take them away.

            “Even if it is,” Billy had said, “I’ll protect you, just like you protected me.” He hugged his shaking twin.

            Rebecca entered their room and asked the twins to join her in the living room, with some guests. A bald man in a wheel chair, and a bubbly girl with wavy brown hair, and a Magen David around her neck.

            “Hello boys,” said the man in the chair, “My name is Charles Xavier, and this is one of my students, Kitty Pryde.” The twins exchanged glances and plopped down on the couch.

            “Billy, Tommy, Professor Xavier is the head of a school for gifted children.”

            “What kind of gifted,” asked Tommy suspiciously.

            “Excellent question. Kitty.”

            “Do strange things ever happen to you when you’re scared or emotional?” she asked.

            “A…are you asking if they’re mutants?” asked Rebecca.

            “Because if you are,” said Tommy, “You’re kind of late.”

            “Yeah, we’ve had powers since…well since before my Bar Mitzvah,” finished Billy.

            The Professor and Kitty looked at each other, surprised and silence ensued while Kitty and the professor conversed via telepathy.

            “Are you both still with us?” asked Rebecca.

            “My apologies, Mrs. Kaplan, yes. I run a school for mutants, such as your sons. Although, I am quite surprised to hear they’ve had their powers for at least two years and we’ve just now detected them.”

            “What does that mean?”

            “I am a telepath,” explained the Professor, “And with a device called Cerebro, I monitor mutant activity and can detect mutants when their powers manifest.”

            “But you didn’t detect us until…”

            “Until that explosion at your school.”

            “You know about that?”

            “Oh yes, and it isn’t your fault Tommy. Mutant powers can sometimes be difficult to control.

            “And you detected both of us now?” asked Billy.

            “Yes, whatever was blocking you from our radar either did not work at that moment, or the display of power and emotion was so grand that it overpowered whatever was hiding you.”

            “That’s confusing…”

            “What are your powers?” asked Kitty.

            “I’m super-fast,” said Tommy demonstrating his abilities.

            “And I generate and control electricity…oh, I fly too…sometimes…” He bit his lip, should he have mentioned the magic. Perhaps at a later moment.

            “So why couldn’t Cerebro detect you?” wondered Charles, “Mrs. Kaplan, boys, may I have permission to read your minds. I promise I will not unlock any secrets. I just want to see your earliest memory.”

            “Well if the boys have no problem with it.” Tommy grabbed Billy’s hand and they nodded.

            A moment later it felt like everything around them changed, now two sets of memories flew parallel to each other over a bridge on which Billy, Tommy, and Xavier stood.

            “You’re walking?” said Tommy.

            “Where are we?” asked Billy.

            “The crossroads between your heads, so to speak. We aren’t really here. It is a projection of both your memories in the same plain of consciousness. We are still back in your home,” explained Charles and began sorting through the shared memories, like pictures on TV screens, “Your bond, as twins is quite impressive—my, my, that is odd.”

            “What?” asked the twins in unison.

            “It would appear as though someone placed a…protection, if you will, upon you. It works like a shield, hiding you from view. This could have easily been done by another psychic or…” or magic, thought Charles, “Or an unknown to me, Mutant power.” He saw a particular memory buried very far back behind others, “Perhaps this can shed some light on the situation.”

            Because the memory was quite old, it was not a full image, just feelings and sensation. Feelings of warmth, love and comfort, followed by fear and dread. After that there was a bright golden light and car horns could be heard.

            “That looks like the light they talked about before we appeared on the street,” said Billy. Xavier turned to look at him, “The police said there was this light and then we appeared out of the blue.”

            “So does this mean our birth parents were mutants too?” asked Tommy.

            “Possibly. But I believe it is time to rejoin your mother and Kitty.” Rebecca looked worried, her face scrunched and thoughtful, “Well…this warrants further investigation.”

            “So…boys, do you want to go to school and learn to be X-men?”

            “D…do we have to?” asked Tommy, his hands shaking.

            “If you wish to, you will always be welcome,” explained Charles.

            “You know we don’t want to go,” said Billy.

            “I detected a few things while going through your subconscious.”

            “Oh man,” said Kitty with a snap of her fingers, “ We need more Jewish kids at the school. If you guys need help learning to control your powers, let us know. We do make house calls. I guess we should be going now. Thank You for your time, boys, Mrs. Kaplan.”

            Kitty stood up and Charles began wheeling towards the door.

            “Professor wait, c…um...” Tommy ran over and whispered in Charles’s ear, “C…can you help us find our birth parents?”

            “I will look into it,” said Charles, “In the meantime, actually. If there are no objections, if you boys don’t mind. I will ask you to come to the mansion, every other weekend or so? Just so we can help you better control your abilities, working with the likes of Kitty and Kurt would be good for you.”

            “Oh, that’s a great idea,” said Rebecca, “Children need to interact with those that are like them in order to fight isolation and anti-social behavior.”

            “Okay,” said the twins.

            As the two boarded the plane to head back to the school Kitty turned to the professor.

            “What was that all about?” asked Kitty, “The shield, their abilities…it’s so weird.”  

            “I…I’m not sure,” replied Charles staring blankly at the window, “But I have my suspicious.”

            “Going to clue anyone in on those?” The plane turned on Kitty maneuvered them off the roof and on towards home, “Thought so. I guess we’ll be seeing the speedster and the electric soon enough.”

            “Wizard.”

            “What was that?”

            “Billy. He doesn’t control electricity. Not completely anyway. When I was in their minds I saw clearly. Billy is a very different type of mutant. He wields magic, or something similar personified in mutant form.”

            “Oh a speedster and…” Her face blanked, “You don’t think…”

            “No no,” said Charles, “It isn’t possible. Those children weren’t real.”

            “Great, now I can’t un-see it,” said Kitty, “Tommy looks like Pietro….it’s right there. Should we tell them?”

            “She has no memory of them, and no one needs to re-open that can of worms, Kitty. From now on, we keep this between us, understood. No one must know Kitty for her sake and for theirs.”

            Kitty sighed, keeping secrets never worked out well for the X-men. She hoped that it would work out this time. 

            And that was how Billy and Tommy finished their freshmen year of high school, with new powers, crazy powers, and now more issues to worry about. 


	10. X-men Moments

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emma Frost is the Wicked Witch, another fabulous cameo by minor characters and the obligatory cameo by the one and only...  
> Basically the twins train with the X-men, Emma ruins things, and the Avengers disassemble.

Chapter 10

Disassembled

That school year finished with the explosion being ruled as an accident. Whatever alternate conclusions the cops could come up with they seemed to forget. Like Magic, whether it was Billy’s doing or that of Charles Xavier remained to be determined. 

            Their first day at the X-mansion for training was nerve wrecking. Tommy ran them over, much to Billy’s dizziness. He loved his brother dearly, but running that fast left him dizzy.

Kitty was already waiting outside for them, “Hello punums,”she greeted eagerly, “Welcome to Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters.”

            “Where’s the professor?” asked Billy. He’d been hoping to ask the professor about their birth parents.

            “I’m afraid the professor is quite busy at the moment. He’s away from the school. But not too worry I am all too happy to help. Come on, let’s go meet some people who will be training you.”  She took them inside the halls of the mansion, “There’s Scott, he has a stick up his ass, and don’t worry about him.” Tommy snickered, “Over there’s Beast’s study, if you don’t want to get lost, don’t go in. But if you feel like having a conversation about 18th Century Time Travel literature, by all means.”

            They passed through Wolverine’s classroom very quickly, with Kitty pushing the twins along. The man’s nose twitched slightly before resuming his usual gruff at his students. There were lots of cool things at the school: Kids with strange powers, kids with no eyes, kids with fur for skin, and it was all like a regular Monday afternoon.

            “You guys have classes in the summer?”

            “We offer an advanced summer program for our students who aren’t able to go home at the end of each term,” explained Kitty, “You guys are really lucky. Your Mom was pretty awesome.”

            “She’s the best,” replied the twins unanimously.

            “Do you do that a lot?”  She asked as they turned the corner.

            “Yes,” they replied.

            “So wait, you offer college prep courses?” asked Billy looking at Dr. Henry McCoy teaching a very advanced level Physics course.

            “Well sort off, a lot of our curriculum is college based. It’s rigorous and we do offer credits for students to take courses to complete their education or advance it.”

            “Cool.”

            “And of course all mutants are welcome here anytime,” said Kitty, “Let’s go to the danger room.” They entered something remotely resembling a Star Trek turbo lift, which took them to a lower deck, the home of Cerebra, and the training area. It was a vast room with very little to show for it other than a metal enclosing and a monitoring station at the top, “This is where you’ll be training.”

            “It’s just a bunch of metal.” Said Tommy.

            “We can program this Danger Room to any environment we need. Peter is up in the booth right now and he’ll be making sure you’re not harmed, “Tommy, you and I will be working on molecular manipulation and moving yourself through solid objects.” Tommy’s eyes seemed to spark, “And Billy, you will be working on your teleportation with…” A puff of purple smoke appeared and with it, a blue imp.

            “Hello kinder, velcomen to ze X-mansion.”

            “Kurt Wagner aka Nightcrawler, meet Billy and Tommy Kaplan.”

            “WICKED!” The twins erupted together.

            “You’re like the coolest X-men after Kitty,” said Billy. Kitty’s face grinned at Nightcrawler. 

            “Stiff competition,” said Kurt, “Dunke. Now Katzen informed me zat I vill be working with ze wizard?” Billy nodded. He looked at the twins and sent a brief look at Kitty who pretended not to notice, wondering how they knew, “Alright zen, come Vunder-Kind ve have a lot of work ahead of us.”

Billy and Kurt walked into the opposite end of the danger room and Kurt signaled Peter in the booth who activated the room to release large panels.

            “Have you ever teleported before?” asked Kurt, demonstrating his teleportation ability.

            “Once, I used it to find Tommy,” explained the mage, “But there wasn’t any smoke or anything. I just concentrated on finding Tommy and there I was, right next to him.”

            Nightcrawler thought about this, “Alright, now I vant you to concentrate and think about appearing on the other side of zis vall. Think about it, feel ze desire. Say it out loud if you need to. Focus all your energy on your povers, ya?”

            Billy’s blue light engulfed him like a bubble as he repeated his desire to appear on the other side of the wall. It was all out loud, like a mantra, over and over. Then with a pop Billy was gone from his spot, arriving on the other side of the metal barrier.

            “Vunderbar,” said Kurt teleporting to the top of said barrier, “Ve shall have to vork on doing zis in your mind und not in your head. It vill give you a great advantage in battle. Vhat else can you do?” Billy just grinned.

            Kitty and Tommy were also working with a similar barrier, “So on a scale of one to Quicksilver how fast are you?” asked Kitty.

            “The Flash,” replied Tommy, “But I’d need a cooler name, something like Instance.”

            “We’ll work on codenames way down the road,” said Kitty, “Let’s have you focus your molecules, think about moving fast, shake your body, but don’t move until I say so.”

            Tommy followed her instructions moving his body quickly, but not moving anywhere. It looked like a small tornado happening around him. He would appear and disappear from view in less than a second.

            “Okay, now run right at the metal barrier. Tommy followed her instructions reluctantly and phased right through the wall, but slamming into the next one. Powering down he looked at himself and then at Kitty, and then at the hole he had made in the wall “That. Was. Awesome! What next?”

            “Well you have to practice, so that you can do it faster, under pressure, and without crashing.”

            About a month into their training they were getting better, stronger and faster. Tommy was now working on exploding things from a distance while Billy was working on non-verbal casting. Their teamwork was incredible to watch, able to anticipate and complement each other’s strengths and weaknesses. This was a pair to watch.

For the first time, however, on that cold October morning, their danger room session was interrupted. A blond woman, clad in white and not in the most modest outfit either marched right in the middle of what looked like a desolate wasteland. The witch had seen them in passing and observed their danger room sessions. She knew they looked exactly like another group of mutants. But she had to be sure, especially given the younger twin’s powers. Reality Warping was by far one of the most dangerous mutant powers and while Billy had not displayed those powers outright, the fact that he could change the conditions of their environment and turn sentinels into puppies was concerning.

 “Oh look here, the wicked witch of Westchester Country.” Said Kitty dryly.

            “Forgive me for interrupting this danger room session. But I will be working with the dark haired twin.”

            Billy and Nightcrawler paused and moved to stand with her. He was still chanting everything he needed to do, which caused him to fall on his ass on more than one occasion. And while some things like flying and teleportation could now be done without chanting, he was having a hard time doing everything else.

            “H…here in the danger room Ms…”

            “Emma Frost, and actually I was hoping to do it in my office.”

            “Hold on lady,” stepped in Tommy, “I don’t know you. You can’t just come in and take my brother somewhere.”

            “He won’t be harmed.”

            “That’s not the point.” Tommy looked at her. She was attractive, but that beauty seemed to shine only on the surface. “I don’t trust you.” Emma narrowed her eyes at him.

            “You don’t necessarily have to trust me.”

            “Yeah. I kind of do if you want to take Billy somewhere. Who are you, what are your powers, what are you going to do to him?”

            Emma sighed and attempted to enter their minds to make them more agreeable to her thought process. But as she attempted to manipulate their thoughts she was violently pushed back by an unknown force, causing her to stumble backwards and brace the wall for support.

            “What are you?”

            “What happened?” asked Kitty. The twins were surprised by the reaction, yet seemed to understand the reasoning behind the force.

            “She tried to enter our minds,” Began Tommy.

            “Without permission,” finished Billy.

            “Not cool.” They said together.

            Emma’s bewildered expression turned to pure confusion, her eyes scanning the twins, her body slowly turning into Diamond form.

            “What are you?”

            “Mutants, Billy and Tommy, you know zis,” explained Kurt, “Vat is wrong Emma?”

            “Their minds are blocked. B…but how?”

            “The Professor said the same thing. But we were willing then,” said Billy, “It probably has something to do with our birth parents.”

             Emma regained her composure, “Not normal, not normal, Not Normal.” She chanted over and over again. The twins looked at each other.            

            “Maybe we should pick this up next weekend.” Suggested Kitty, “Things seem to be escalating all over the place.”

            “What do you mean?” asked Billy.

            “Nothing, just X-men business,” responded Kitty all too quickly.

            That had been an awkward and odd experience. Things had been good for another month without incident, the twins seemed to like their new high school for starters. But that October…things had been just bizarre. Now they were 16 and the world was getting weirder by the second. Strange occurrences, of invading Alien nations and other random attacks plaguing the Avengers.

            The twins had just asked Kitty Pryde if she would like to spend Hanukkah at their house, which that year started on the 1st of December. She eagerly agreed.

            “Look at the mansion,” whispered Pixie at the television screen as the twins passed it on the way down to the Danger room, “It’s so weird. I mean they said it was an explosion that happened last week. But wow. Half of it is gone.”

            “But they’ll totally get back up from this,” said someone else.

            A grueling Danger Room session with Wolverine of all people left the twins exhausted and their generic X-men issued uniforms covered in soot. They stumbled back up after a thorough shower to even more people huddled around the television set.

            “What’s going on?” asked the twins.

            A perky young reporter was on CVN, “This is Alice Gleason reporting live outside the Avengers mansion where Iron Man, stood moments ago. The home of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes will be declared an official landmark, but the Avengers have officially disbanded as of this moment. Amy, all I can tell you is that this is a very sad day for the world. The mansion stands now as a hollow reminder of what has occurred here in a matter of a few weeks. The world will miss the Avengers. But the question has to be asked. When the world is in trouble, who will protect us?” The screen changed to the woman, supposedly Amy, with red hair, and an old white haired gentleman with a mustache and glasses.

            “Thank You Alice. Joining me now is Senator Stanley Lieber of New York. Senator Lieber, what is your reaction to Mr. Stark’s announcement?”

            “It is a sad day in New York for all of us,” said the Senator, “We must stand strong and remember that although they aren’t Avengers anymore, they are still heroes and they will protect us, and save us.”

            “Do you think this is the end of the Avengers?”

            “Not completely no,” said Senator Lieber, “I think this is a necessary step for them. And soon or later they will realize that they are stronger together.”

            The twins instantly vanished from the X-mansion and appeared in the middle of Central Park. The mansion was in ruins and its outer fence had candles and notes taped to it, “We’ll miss you” and “Please don’t leave” were thrown in and a man stood guard outside, making sure no one who wasn’t allowed in tried to enter.  

The reporters were packing up and dispersing. No one paid attention to two teenage boys standing outside the gates.

            “This sucks,” said Tommy kicking a rock as Billy sat on the bench, “I mean how the hell can they just quit? They’re supposed to be heroes.”

            Billy said nothing, staring at the ruins of the mansion. The world was in danger now and a feeling of dread settled in his stomach.

            “Excuse me,” said an automated voice that sounded almost like Iron Man’s, “Are you two alright?”

            “We’re fine,” said Tommy defensively standing in front of Billy, “What are you supposed to be a Cosplayer?” He squinted to see the man hiding in the dark.

            Out of the shadows of the evening appeared a boy in a suit of armor, “Not quite. My name is Iron Lad and I need your help.”

            “What kind of help?” asked Billy.

            “That’s a bit more complicated. The Avengers are gone, and there needs to be a new team to take their place, a strong team. You Billy Kaplan and Thomas Shephard constitute the next wave of Avengers.”

            “It’s Kaplan,” said the twins together.

            “What do you mean by “next wave”? Do you mean a new generation?”

            “Yes. You two have a connection to the Avengers, which is how I found you.”

            “Wait…what kind of connection to the Avengers?” asked Tommy.

            “I…I thought you might know,” replied the armored teen despondently, “Meet me behind the mansion tomorrow at 5, and we’ll talk then.”

            Back at the Xavier school the faculty was sitting around a table in the faculty room, “No one can know.” Said Emma firmly, the only one standing, with her palms wresting on the table, “What I am about to tell you cannot leave this room.”

            “Does it have to do with the twins or with the Avengers?” asked Kitty. Emma turned to glare at her, “What? You were the one that freaked out over them and now the Avengers are gone. It’s not that hard to figure out.”

            Beast entered the room, “Wanda Maximoff,” he said flatly.

            “Scarlet Witch? So? I heard she disappeared in a scuffle,” said Cyclops.

            “Magneto took her,” said Beast, “She was the one responsible for the deaths of Scott Lang, Hawkeye and the Vision.” Everyone gasped.

            “Why?” asked Kitty her mouth open and the only one able to form a coherent sentence.

            “Her children. For some reason, in her warped mind, she blamed the Avengers for their deaths. And this was her way of punishing them, I suppose.”

            “You mean the magical constructs that were absorbed by Mephisto and then destroyed along with him?” asked Bobby Drake.

            Beast sat down and gestured to Emma.

            “About that,” she began, “Originally we thought that they weren’t real. Just magical constructs kept alive only by Wanda’s thoughts. Now…”  

            “Billy and Tommy,” said Kurt, “It voud explain zeir povers, und appearance. Tommy is Pietro und Billy’s powers…”

            “Are almost identical to Wanda’s.” said Emma, “I know. That is why I wanted to work with the boy. But that barrier….”

            “A mental barrier preventing the Professor from reading too far even with consent. But kept you completely out without it. Did Wanda put it up?” asked Kitty, “I’ve been wondering about it.”

            “It is possible, but not consciously I think,” said Beast, “I would have to run neurological scans on both of them. Do we know how they came to be?”

            “Sixteen years ago…give or take,” said Kitty, “There was this ball of light and the twins just appeared. They were then taken to the hospital to be checked out, but were separated because Billy had asthma.” Everyone looked at Kitty, “Mrs. Kaplan told me the whole story while the Professor was in mental link with the boys.”

            “Ball of light? Wanda’s magic?”

            “No way of knowing,” said Beast, “That would be a question for Dr. Strange. The children’s abilities and mastery of said abilities is impressive.”

            “And let’s not forget that they’d had their powers for 2 years before we were able to detect them using Cerebra,” added Kitty.

            “Either way. We cannot tell anyone that they are her kids or that she is their mom,” said Emma, “They can never know. For all our sakes.”

            “Isn’t that…I mean if she did do all of this under the impression that her kids were dead or taken from her…wouldn’t reuniting them fix the problem?” asked Bobby.

            “She’s still a seriously mentally unstable mutant,” said McCoy, “Sadly, we cannot know if that would fix the problem. Logan is on a mission right now and it is best if the truth remains in this room. The twins deserve a normal, drama free childhood to grow up and get an education and explore the world around them. This would put them in unimaginable danger.”  

            “They have a right to know,” pushed Kurt, “I may not have a lot of love for mein Mozer But it is better to know the truth, nein?”

            “Not in this case,” said Emma, “They would seek her out and think about what she might do to them. Until we know what her mental state is, where she is, and what can be done, we keep quiet. Are we clear?” They all nodded in agreement.

Of course, the truth always comes out no matter how hard people try to keep it hidden. That’s just how the universe works. The question of course is how long would it be before this little nugget of knowledge was released? 


	11. Things Change

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Billy gets closer to Teddy and the twins decide on code names....plus a few other things happen.

Meeting Iron Lad presented them in front of a crossroad, to continue their training with the X-men, or follow in the footsteps of someone they may or may not have a connection to who may or may not be related to them.  

That night the twins couldn’t sleep, “Should we go?”  

“And miss out on a chance to be Avengers, are you kidding?” asked Billy, “We have to go.”

Tommy laid on Billy’s bed sometimes instead of his own, “Do you think…I mean there’s no way. But…could our parents have been Avengers? Or one of them?”

“Iron Lad did say that we had a connection to the Avengers…so I guess it’s possible. I doubt they’re Avengers though. They would have taken care of us, or made sure we were kept safe. They wouldn’t have just dumped us.”

“That’s what Superman’s parents did,” countered Tommy.

“They did that to give him a chance, to save him from dying with the rest of Krypton. Life isn’t a comic book though.”

“Wouldn’t they have at least made sure we stayed together?”

Billy grabbed Tommy’s hand, “We’re together now. That’s all that matters. And whoever our parents are or aren’t doesn’t matter right now. All that matters right now is if we’re going to go and meet Iron Lad.”

Tommy glared at his twin, “Come on, you and I both know we’re going.”

They arrived outside the mansion to someone else already waiting. Several things went through their minds. Were they ready to be heroes? Did they want to be? And maybe it was the desire to help people and the curiosity of their past that pushed them to go and meet with Iron Lad.

The other kid there was black, and looked way too sure of himself.

“Hi, I’m Billy.”

“And I’m Tommy.”

“Eli Bradley.”

“So do you have a tie to the Avengers too?” asked Tommy.

“Iron Lad says we all do,” explained Eli, “My grandfather was Isaiah Bradley. The Black Captain America.”

Iron Lad arrived, helmet off, a striping young man, with black hair, “Welcome, glad you could all join us.” Eli seemed pretty cool. Even if he was a bit cold and looked like he didn’t trust anyone, “We’ll begin shortly, we’re just waiting for one last person.”

Shortly after a blond young man, with kind blue eyes arrived. His shoulders were hunched and he held onto his school bag, “S…sorry I’m late. I wasn’t sure if I was going to come.”

“We weren’t sure either,” said Tommy.

“I’m, uh.” Billy cleared his throat, “I’m Billy.”

“Tommy.” He waved though he did not care.

“So what exactly is this? A club for superhero nerds?” asked Eli.

“No, this is very serious. The world is in danger and we are the next generation of heroes. Therefore we have to…we need to fight this threat.”

“What threat?”

“Kang the Conqueror. He’s coming. And the Avengers aren’t around anymore to stop him, so we have to,” said Iron Lad, “My name is Nathaniel Richards and first order of business. Does anyone have any actual combat training?” Two hands went up.

“Krav Maga?” asked Eli turning to the twins.

“We’re mutans and h…we spent every weekend since the beginning of summer going to the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters to train.”  

  “You didn’t go full-time?” asked Nathaniel.

“We didn’t want to leave our family,” explained Tommy.

“You met the X-men?” asked Teddy, his voice rising out of excitement, “That is so cool.”

“Not all of them, just a few…” said Billy blushing. Tommy glared, “They taught us how to use our powers to fight and um…” Billy stared at Teddy and Teddy stared at Billy. The light haired speedster was ready to puke.

This is how it started. They were wannabe Avengers and for three weeks they trained and hung out as a team. Week 1 was the gang getting to know each other, their powers, strengths and weaknesses. The second week was about training and learning to fight, the twins were especially helpful in that, and Eli begrudgingly worked with Iron Lad even if he didn’t trust him. Week three they finally chose code names.  Eli was Patriot. Teddy had chosen to put his shape-shifting abilities to good use and become Hulkling. That left Billy and Tommy.

“We should tag team something. I mean there aren’t that many twin superheroes. We could make that work.” Tommy had suggested after they had split off from the rest of the team, “Like Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver.”

“Velocity and Lightening Lad?” asked Billy.

“Are you kidding?” asked Tommy as they settled on Billy’s glowing blue orb floor to take them home, “Come on, we can think of something better.”

“So…maybe like Hawk and Dove. Speedster and Caster. Or Asguardian and Windknocker.”

“Windknocker?” asked Tommy, “What kind of a name is that?”

“Um…Bullet and Magic-boy?”

“Asgardian and Hermes?” He finally suggested, “I mean you wanted to do something Thor-like and we are twins so…”

“How about Speedster instead? It’s more fitting.”

“Speedster it is. You sure you want to go with Asgardian?” Billy nodded, “Nerd.” They flew back home, arriving right in their bedroom and as soon as they landed, the dark haired young man went to text his new friend, “Are you texting Teddy again?”

“Just letting him know I made it home safe, that’s all.”

Tommy rolled his eyes, the two had been texting non-stop and always teamed up to work together in training.

Hanukkah, the festival of light and the remembrance of history was an exciting time for the Kaplan family. Rebecca and Jeff had decided to keep it just the immediate family and special guest of the evening, Kitty Pryde. Having been invited weeks ago, she was excited to finally be returning to the Kaplan home. Wolverine had dropped her off on his way to yet another mysterious mission he didn’t want to talk about, while the Professor was busy doing G-d knows what on Genosha.

“Hello Kaplan family, I bring presents,” she said holding several bags, wearing a menorah covered sweater.

“Hello Kitty, welcome, this is my husband Jeff,” said Rebecca and also introduced the young Kaplans, Jacob and Simon grinned and greeted Kitty warmly.

“Something smells really good Mrs. K.”

“Oh that’s not me,” said Rebecca, “That is all Jeff.”

“I got the cooking bug, what can I say? Welcome Kitty,” They let her walk inside and she set the presents down on the table as the twins came out. They hugged.

“How are you guys, you haven’t been over in a few weeks? Granted it as probably for the best, but you’ve been missed.”

“School…has been kind of crazy lately,” said Billy before Tommy could, “Once things calm down again we’d be happy to come back and continue out training.”

“Glad to hear it. Are you still doing those exercises we talked about?”

“Yup.”

“Tommy what about your metabolism?”

“I eat one of those protein bars that Dr. McCoy sent over every day.” Hank had developed a special recipe which gave the speedster the necessarily supplements he needed without having to eat constantly throughout the day.

“I’m glad. I got you boys something,” she said, “After dinner.”

Tommy had the honor of lighting the first candle to mark the first night of Hanukkah and prayers were said. Latkes was served in the small dining area, with sour cream, and wine for the adults.

“Kitty, please, tell us, how are the boys doing on their training?” Asked Jeff, “I’m afraid they haven’t told us much.”

Kitty swallowed her latkes, “Sure. Tommy’s amazing, he’s got the idea to use his speed in acrobatics, allowing him to run on walls and ceilings. He’s faster than Quicksilver.”

“Told ya,” said Tommy looking at the younger boys.

“And Billy’s powers are very unique. He’s gained a lot of control over his very powerful abilities. He has the potential to literally do anything and his discipline is really impressive, especially for someone his age.”

“What does that mean exactly?” asked Jeff.

“Billy’s magic.” Said Tommy, “That’s really the simple explanation. And trust me Dad, you don’t want the detailed one. Dr. McCoy explained it to us and my head still hurts.”

“There is one thing, we were wondering, if we could run some tests,” said Kitty, “Nothing too intrusive, just basics to measure their progress and see where further education is required.”

“Sounds perfectly reasonable,” said Rebecca, “And how is Professor Xavier doing?”

“He’s…quite busy, but he’s alright.” Recent trouble in Genosha aside he was fine.

The latkes were devoured by the table and Kitty thoroughly enjoyed the wine and doughnuts for dessert.

“Now, I believe I said something about presents,” said Kitty. For the younger Kaplan boys she got comic books which they were all too happy about and flew of pretending to be X-men. For Rebecca she got a new book published by a psychologist talking about the adjustment of young mutants, “The boys mentioned you were writing a paper on the psychology of young mutants and I thought this might help”

“Thank you Kitty, that’s very thoughtful.” Jeff got a blue and white striped tie.

“Alright boys, it’s your turn.” They both tore open the presents. It was their suits from the X-Mansion, with modifications. Billy had a cape attached to his and Tommy’s had goggles which allowed him to see through smoke, or analyze things in his path, “We tweaked the generic ones to best fit your personality and usage. Basically. You’ve proven yourselves and we can entrust these to you.”

They stood up and hugged Kitty tightly and afterwards presented her with a bracelet that had a Jewish star on it, as well as a computer charm. The Kaplan family gave kitty a bracelet to go with her necklace that she always wore.

On Saturday Billy was awake and already eating breakfast when the rest of the children stumbled into the kitchen.

“Why are you up early?” asked Tommy, “You’re usually the one we’re waiting on.” He sat down beside his twin.

“Billy’s a sleepy head,” said Simon.

“Yup, the sleepiest,” said Jacob.

“Going somewhere?”

“Teddy wanted to hit the Comic book store.” Tommy rolled his eyes and caught Rebecca smirking at her husband.

“Who’s Teddy?”

“He goes to our school. He’s on the basketball team,” explained Tommy.

“That’s good,” said Jeff, “We’ll have to meet him.”

“We’re just going to go to the comic book store.”

“You going to the comic book store too Tommy?” asked Simon.

“Nope,” said Tommy after eating his plate of French toast, “I wasn’t invited.”

Billy looked at him, “I invited you to come two days ago. You said you didn’t want to go.”

“So I’ll just be here,” said Tommy ignoring Billy, “Jake, Si, we can finally watch all those movies you said I missed out on.”

Billy huffed at Tommy and ran to get dressed after breakfast. He put on a button down shirt and dark jeans. Rebecca grinned, watching her son scramble to get dressed. She also spotted her white haired son steaming in the living room.

“Something bothering you Tommy?” asked Rebecca sitting down beside him.

He put on a smile for her, “Nothing Mom.”

“You sure? You and Billy aren’t getting into drugs or anything are you? You’re staying out late…”

“Of course not Mom. We’ve just been hanging out with um…some new friends. Teddy’s one of them. Personally I’m hoping more girls join at some point. But right now it’s the four of us, we mostly play video games…at our friend Nate’s house.”

“Well…I’d love to meet your friends. But I understand teenagers need to assert their independence. Just…maybe tone down a little on the late nights.”

“Okay,” said Tommy.

“How do I look?” asked Billy.

“Slightly less nerdy than usual,” replied Tommy and walked out of the room.

Teddy walked up to the door in time to meet Jeff, briefly nod to Rebecca and have Billy pushing him out the door.

“Twin brother and two younger brothers? Your parents are officially my heroes,” said Teddy, “So you never did tell me. How is it that you and Tommy didn’t grow up together?”

“Tommy was adopted before I was because I was in the hospital with asthma. My Dad was doing his residency and he saw me and then after Tommy and I found each other they adopted him.”

“Yup, your parents, officially superheroes.”

Billy nodded, “Though Tommy’s been kind of weird lately. He said he didn’t want to go to the comic book store. But now he’s pissy because I’m going with you.” He shrugged, “So it’s just your mom right?”

“Yup. She sells apartments and she and I watch goofy comedies as often as we can.”

“Have you seen Spaceballs?”

“Spaceballs?” Billy looked like somebody had stabbed him through the heart.

“Blazing Saddles? History of the World Part I? Robin Hood Men in Tights Young Frankenstein?”

“Sorry no.”

“To be or Not to be?”

“Isn’t that a line from Hamlet?”

“Oh no…nope, sorry Teddy, we can’t be friends, you call yourself a fan of comedies but have not seen a single Mel Brooks film?” They crossed the street and turned at the end of the next block with Billy throwing his hands in the air.

“I guess it means we’ll have to marathon through them and you can educate me,” said Teddy with a wink, Billy blushed and a gust of wind blew him right into Teddy’s arms, “Was that…?”

Billy’s eyes narrows in the direction the wind headed, “I have no idea, anyway, come on, the comic book shop awaits.”

They entered the shop and first perused the new releases, of course, Billy grabbed right for the Nightwing comic.

“You like Nightwing?”

“Kind of only reading this one because Oracle’s supposed to show up and tell him off,” explained Billy and flipped through it, “There it is. Oracle’s the best.”

“Okay, you promised to tell me what Nightcrawler was like.”

Billy grinned, “He’s the coolest, and he taught us some German when we weren’t training. That was kind of fun and hey more languages are always useful.”

“You speak Hebrew too right?”

Blushing the magic user nodded, “What about you, any languages?”

“Spanish in school,” replied Teddy picking up a Teen Titans book from the tpb area, “Was it hard…getting a handle on your powers?”

“Kind of. Tommy has better control of his powers than I do.”

“Tommy looks a little too much like Quicksilver.”

“Really?” asked Billy, “I don’t see it.” Teddy stared at Billy in disbelief.

That night everyone arrived to train.

“We really need to discuss costumes for you guys,” said Iron Lad.

“That shouldn’t be too hard, right?” asked Tommy with a wink.

“We can’t use those.” Replied Billy, “It would be a dead giveaway and we’re trying to do the whole actually having a secret identity thing.”

“Does it feel like we’re missing something?” asked Teddy.

“Only all the time with those two. Damn twin telepathy.” Added Eli, “So are we really doing this, emulating the Avengers?”

Everyone sat down inside the broken Avengers mansion, with Billy creating a heat bubble to keep them warm.

“I guess, I mean if we want to get their attention,” said Teddy, “This is the only way.” He shifted into his hulk persona.

“Green is your color,” said Billy.

Tommy made a gaging noise.

“Well, maybe we should throw out some ideas and work on your costumes and then we can continue our training,” said Nate, “We will meet back here next week so that you can show us your costumes.

 The younger twin said nothing as everyone got up.

“Later losers,” Tommy was gone, nothing but the unsettled dust floating in the air.

“He’s been more irritating than usual,” noted Eli.

Billy nodded, “Eli need a lift home?”

“Nah, I like taking the subway, thanks though.” He headed towards the closest subway station as Teddy got sucked into Billy’s blue bubble.

“Flying or teleporting?” asked Billy.

“Whatever’s easier for you?” Billy bit his lip. He wanted to stay with Teddy…but Tommy had been acting weird. But Teddy…in the end, he flew Teddy home, landing on the roof of his apartment building, “I guess I’ll see you next week…”

“Y…yeah, I guess…so…” Billy began, the magic reformed to take him home, but at the last minute he dropped it, “Teddy…w…would…um…would you like to go on…um…a date with me?”

Teddy grinned, “Sounds like a plan. See you at school.”


	12. Brother's and Superheroing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tommy and Billy have a chat, the young avengers make the front page of the Daily Bugle and things are about to get a whole more interesting.

Billy appeared at home and found the speedster he shared a room with working on his costume. It wasn’t green with goggles like the one he had gotten from Kitty. No, this one was a kind of sky blue with a mask/

“Going for the Quicksilver look?” asked Billy as he laid down on his bed, “Maybe I should just make mine burgundy and be Burgandy boy.” No reaction. What? That was a prime mocking opportunity for Tommy and nothing?

“Are you okay?”

“Peachy,” replied Tommy drily, “Hope you didn’t drop Altman on the way home.”

Billy sat up and grabbed his pajamas, “Hey, I only did that once…and um…I…uh…asked him out.”

“Woopie for you.” Tommy stopped messing with the fabric and fell onto his bed, sliding underneath the covers and turned off his desk light. Billy opened his mouth to say something….would Tommy listen? With a heavy sigh Billy changed clothes and crawled into bed.

The following day after school Tommy didn’t wait for Billy like he usually did and was already at home, munching on chips when Billy walked through the door.

“Tommy…is there something…did I do something? Are you mad at me?”

Tommy rolled his eyes, “No, dweeb, we’re fine.”

When Rebecca came home the first thing Billy did was ask if he could go to Teddy’s house on Saturday to start on their very important movie marathon.

“I don’t see why not,” said Rebecca, “Take Tommy with you.” Billy bit his lip and was ready to argue.

“Not going,” replied Tommy, “I get enough of those two at school.” Rebecca eyed him and made a mental note to talk to her husband.

On Saturday Billy arrived at Teddy’s small two bedroom apartment in Manhattan. It was a cozy house with a couch built for two and a chair with a coffee table between them and a large flat screen tv. The TV looked cool and Billy unloaded his amazing collection of Mel Brooks movies.

“Where’s your mom?”

“Open House,” said Teddy, “She’ll be back in the afternoon. But she left some money for us to order Chinese.”

“Sounds good.”

“So…where do we start?”

Billy put on his best German accent, “Vould the Doctor care for a brandy before retiring?” Teddy stared blankly at him, “We have a lot of work to do, my friend. Let’s start with Young Frankenstein.”

They made it through Young Frankenstein and Teddy enjoyed it. To Be or Not to Be had Billy holding Teddy’s hand, especially at the end and while the movie had a lighter tone to it, the Holocaust could not be overlooked. They keeled over from laughter at History of the World Part 1, had a giggling fest over Spaceballs and had a blast with Blazing Saddles and Robin Hood Men in Tights.  In between movies they munched on egg rolls and had a chopstick sword fight before making out on that very comfortable sofa.

“Is that all of them?”

“All the ones I own, there’s also the Twelve Chairs, Silent Movie and High Anxiety. But I didn’t like High Anxiety that much, it really wasn’t funny, never saw Silent movie, and the soviet version of the Twelve Chair is better.”

“How do you know?” asked Teddy.

Billy blushed, “Magic,” he replied ominously before looking at his phone, “I should probably go home.”

“Probably,” admitted Teddy, but he didn’t want him to leave, “Maybe next time you and I can do a trip to the park or something…”

“Does this mean I can count on a second date?” asked Billy.

“Second…third…probably a fourth too.”

“I can get behind that.” The two kissed good-bye and Billy teleported home with his DVD collection. His twin was already asleep, or pretending to be. When he heard Billy appear he turned his back to him, “Nice to see you too.”

For several weeks Tommy had managed to be either rude or antagonistic, whether it was during lunch and he wouldn’t sit with them, or after school when he would ditch Billy and get home before him. It drove Billy nuts and any attempt at conversation was futile.

At the very least Tommy’s newly freed time allowed him to work on his awesome costume. It was a sweater, blue with two lightening strips like suspenders, matching pants and a dark blue belt to hold those special nutrition bars and specialized running shoes that Dr. McCoy had sent him for his birthday.

Billy’s costume had consisted of metal plates, for his chest and a dark blue/red suit he found on the internet, big brown leg bands and gloves, as well as a red cape and headpiece with wings. It looked pretty cool from Billy’s perspective.

A few days later they presented their costumes to the group. Eli’s costume had a brown utility belt, red gloves and white pants with a blue jacket and mask that covered his entire head. It was really cool looking. Teddy sported a completely green look with gloves and a black turtleneck vest with matching pants and combat boots.  

“You two really look like Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver?”

“It’s because we’re both twins, aren’t we?” asked Tommy.

“No,” said Iron Lad, “Because you both look exactly like them, powers and all.” The twins didn’t see it. The powers sure, but their powers weren’t exact. Could Quicksilver blow things up? Could the Scarlet Witch generate lightening? Please.

“Could you be related to them?” asked Teddy, “You were adopted?”

“At this point,” said Tommy, “The Queen of England could be our mom and we wouldn’t know it. What are you supposed to be, Elphaba?”

“Hulkling remember?” asked Teddy. “I’m copying the hulk, Eli’s copying Bucky…”

“And you two are copying Quicksilver and Thor,” added Eli, “You’re kind of an ass, aren’t you?”

“Yup,” replied Tommy with a bow, “At your service.” Billy backed away from his brother to talk to Teddy about making plans for their next date. Caught up in each other they did not hear the growing argument between two of their teammates.

“Wednesday, comic book store?” asked Teddy, “Right after school?”

“You’re on.”  

 “Oh for the love of,” began snapped Eli as Tommy had caused rocks to exploded behind him. That got their attention.

Eli and Tommy were now outright yelling at each other, Tommy’s shouts inaudible from how fast he was talking. He had enough and moved away from the screaming twin to talk to the other one.

“You need to deal with him, enough is enough.” Said Eli. Nate ran after to try to calm him down, “See you guys next week.”

“I probably should get back too,” said Teddy. He bit his lip and quickly pecked Billy on the cheek. Tommy had vanished and Teddy sprouted wings, “See you Wednesday.”

With everyone gone Billy teleported himself home. Tommy wasn’t there. Thinking back there were only a few places that Tommy would go if he needed to be alone. Teleporting took him to a place they both knew all too well, the place they had their first real conversation.

The night was quiet and no one was around, the Liberty Bell stood silently and Tommy was sitting on the steps of liberty hall. He looked up just enough to know Billy was there without looking at him directly.

Billy sat down silently beside his brother and for a moment neither twin said anything.

“What do you want?”

“Really? What do I want? You’re the one who’s been acting weird the last few weeks. Not to mention you’ve been a real jerk to me, and Eli and Teddy.”

Tommy groaned, “Can I go one minute without hearing that stupid jock’s name?”

“What is it the problem that you have with Teddy? He’s been nothing but nice to you, to me, to everyone.”

“I don’t have a problem with him,” Snapped Tommy.

“Then it is me,” said Billy, “Tell me what I did, please.”

“Forget it.” Tommy ran off, but Billy was having none of it. Using his powers he teleported them to a mountain in the desert, a fortress, “Where the hell are we?” demanded the speedster.

“Masada.”

“So what are you going to do? Leave me here to find my way home?”

Billy looked appalled, “Of course not. I…Tommy…I would never. I just want to talk to you. Why are you acting like such a jerk?”

“Maybe these are just my true colors showing.”

“That’s such bullshit and you know it,” began Billy, “Everything was fine until we agreed to join Iron Lad and the others.”

“Pht, whatever.”

“No, not whatever. Come on Tommy. Do you hate being on the team…is it Eli? Is…am I doing something? Please tell me,” there was desperation in the wizard’s voice.

“It’s not you,” snapped Tommy.

“Then why are you acting like this?”

“Because it’s always Teddy. “Teddy’s so nice” “Teddy likes comic book” “I think I like Teddy.” It’s like your entire life revolves around him,” Snapped Tommy finally.

“Tommy,” Billy said in barely a whisper stepping closer to his twin.

“And I get it. I knew it would happen one day. Either you or me and granted I thought it would be me first so I wasn’t really prepared. Now it…I just feel like you’re going to start dating him, and you pretty much are already…” Tommy wasn’t going to cry, it was stupid. It wasn’t necessary, but a few tears of fear fell down anyway, “I’m scared you won’t…that you’ll.”

Tommy dropped to the ground and Billy fell down beside him, pulling his twin into his arms.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry Tommy,” he wrapped his arms tighter around him, “It won’t happen. I promise it won’t. I won’t let it. You’re my brother. Boyfriends and girlfriends come and go, but family’s forever.”

“Sorry,” sniffed Tommy, “It sounds stupid out loud.”

“No, it doesn’t.” They stood up, “How about you and I ditch practice this weekend and just hang out. Star Trek marathon?”

Tommy grinned, “Sounds like a plan.”

“And next time,” began Billy forming a bubble around the two of them, “How about we talk about what’s bothering us, instead of sulking.”

“You sound like Mom.”

“Well…she’s mom. Moms are usually right…especially the Jewish ones.” No one could say for sure if there was ever a time where Rebecca Kaplan was wrong, perhaps only Bubbe, “Let’s go home.”

The twins teleported back home laughing and enjoyed the rest of the weekend together, just brothers hanging out. It had been a while since they were both able to spend time together and re-bond.

It was two weeks after this that the Young Avengers had gotten their first mission, rescuing people from a 4 Alarm Fire. Forget a possible new date with Teddy, or hanging out as a team, nope, they suited up and went to face Electro and save the residents of the building the super villain had sent on fire.

Not to be far from the action, Kat Farrell was intrigued by the young heroes and was taking incessant notes while trying to get a quote from the new heroes. Teddy was as respectful as he could be, Tommy happily provided a quote at super speed that she had no chance of hearing, forget writing down. Billy tried a containment spell, but wasn’t able to do much because of the stress of the situation. He made a mental note to practice that later as he flew several people down to the ground.

The next day the twins were praying against reality that their parents wouldn’t notice they were out late gallivanting and decided to leave the house earlier than usually to avoid any awkward questions.

“Can you believe that Kat Farrell?” asked Billy, “She called Eli Lieutenant American.”

“She also called him bossy…which she wasn’t wrong.” They were hunched over a coffee table at Starbucks, reading the Daily Bugle Article.

“Thor Junior had lightening powers and swiftly flew the hostages to a safe distance from the flames. Iron Kid’s armor was battling the increasing the ever large fire, to give his teammates cover and time. Teen Hulk was very polite and went the extra mile to rescue a beloved pink bunny of one of the younger residents…and the Young Speedster was an efficient rescue blur.” Read Billy.

“You got flew swiftly and I got efficient rescue blur?” whined Tommy quietly.

“HA! You sound like a super powered ambulance.” Tommy flicked his napkin at his brother, “Can we come up with a new name before we go public? Young Avengers? We sound like children.”

“Well…we’re not adults,” added Billy, “Come on, we promised the guys we’d meet them for briefing.”

“I thought we were meeting for video games first?”

That night everything changed and marked the beginning of a new adventure that none of teens had expected and it all began at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

The four Young Avengers save Tommy went through the window of the church as gunmen in Armani suits held wedding guests hostage. The bride was Susan Bishop, daughter of mogul Derek Bishop.

The speedster ran right through the front door, accidentally knocking out the parents of the groom before grabbing the guns off two gunman. Asguardian electrocuted serval gunman as Iron Lad took away their guns. Patriot threw his stars at three others and Hulkling strongly threatened one. Everything was going right…until it went wrong. One of the gunman wielded a knife and attempted to stab Hulkling.

“Watch out!” screamed Asguardian as he attempted to attack the bad guy, only to get grabbed by Speedster and whisked out of the way of the bad guy as Hulkling knocked him sideways. The lead gunman was not about to be outdone. The increased speed led to a small explosive residue the church couldn’t quite handle, leading Iron Lad to stop a small fire.

“Nobody move,” he yelled, holding the Maid of Honor, one Kate Bishop as his meat shield, “We didn’t come here to hurt anyone. But we will if we have to.”

“Let the girl go,” said Patriot while being held by another assailant.

“Not until my associates and I are safely out of here.”

“The only place you and your people are going…” began Patriot.

“Patriot the police have to handle this,” Began Iron Lad, “We escalated the situation.”

“You’ve got a point there,” said the lead gunman.

“Which reminds me,” said Kate Bishop stabbing the man with one of Patriot’s stars, “So do I.”

While Kate and Patriot were arguing with each other and fighting the bad guys, the mage and the speedster took care of the hostages, between speed and magic, all the hostages were safety moved behind the police barricade.

A few minutes later, the bad guys appeared inside the police cruisers, already handcuffed and a crowd of cops surrounded the teen heroes.

“Despite reports of the hostages being transported outside the church, witnesses describe the attempted rescue by the Young Avengers as a pitiful heroic effort.” Reported Channel Z News.

“We gotta get out of here,” commented Speedster.

“Young Avengers? Kat Farrell Daily Bugle,” called a redheaded reporter.

“Young Avengers?” asked Hulkling.

“It’s a little on the nose, don’t you think?” asked Asquardian unaware he was talking to Jessica Jones.

“So what do you call yourselves?” asked the private detective.

“Speedster, Asguardian, Hulkling, let’s go,” called Iron Lad grabbing on to Patriot.

“Iron Lad put me down,” demanded the other hero.

Kate Farrell feverously wrote down their names.

“What’s Lieutenant America’s name?” asked Jessica Jones as Asguardian grabbed Hulkling.

“Patriot, what’s yours?” asked Hulking.

“Jessica Jones.”

“Jessica Jones as in Jewel?” Jessica made a face and handed them her card.

“Oy…look here’s my card, if you want to talk…”

“Let’s go slowpokes,” called Speedster.

“Jessica Jones wants us to call her.”

“Jessica Jones as in Jewel?” Asguardian formed a bubble around the other heroes and they vanished.  

They reappeared on the grounds of the mansion, irritated and Patriot started yelling at everyone.

“You’re just cranky that hot girl in purple got to you,” said Tommy taking off his mask.

 “Am not,” said Eli taking his mask off, “We’re five kids tricked out as junior avengers trying to fight a bad guy who might not even come.”

“Kang will come,” snapped Iron Lad.

“Says you.” Said Eli, “Forget it. I’m heading home before my grandma finds out I’m gone.”

“Come on cranky pants, you’re supposed to a hero,” called Tommy, but Eli wasn’t interested in listening to anyone.

“I guess I’ll head home too, Billy you coming?”

“I’m going to take Teddy home,”

Tommy gave a salute and was gone while the remaining two turned to Iron Lad, “Here,” began Teddy, handing him the business card, “Jessica Jones wants us to call her.”

“Jessica Jones as in….”

“Jewel, yeah. Who are we to be calling Jessica Jones?” asked Billy.

“Well according to the Bugle we’re the Young Avengers.”

“Please, can we come up with a better name first.”

Tommy while originally deciding to go home, caught up with Eli who, instead of heading to the subway like he promised ended up finding MGH dealers in the park.

“Dude you’re seriously fighting MGH dealers? Are you for real?”

“Stay out of it Speedy,” snapped Patriot dodging one of the guy’s shots as they ran to their car.

“It’s Speedster. Speedy is Green Arrow’s sidekick.”

“Why is he called Speedy if he shoots arrows?”

“I don’t know go ask a DC comics writer.” Called Speedster, keeping up with Patriot’s pace as he ran after the guys, “Want me to blow up their car?”

“I want you to go away,” snapped Patriot.

It was just a mile from down the street where the two ran into Hulkling and Asguardian and the four worked to stop the bad guys. At record time.

“At least we can stop these idiots,” commented Speedster as Patriot tied up the dealers. Together they returned to the mansion in time to see a purple clad girl hop the gate of the mansion.

“It’s the girl from the Cathedral, who’s the other one?” whispered Teddy.

“I think we’re about to find out,” began Tommy as Eli walked forward.

It turned out that the blonde girl was Cassie Lang. THAT Cassie Lang, daughter of Ant-Man Scott Lang and….she grows too. Who knew? And Kate Bishop was a total badass. Tommy could not stop staring at her. At that moment Jessica Jones ran in with Captain America and Iron Man and suddenly everything became much more complicated.  


	13. Avengers Failsafe Program

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So...the gang is all here and everyone meets some Avengers who are suspicious and make mistakes and aren't perfect.

Captain America, don’t panic, thought Billy standing right in front of CAPTAIN AMERICA!!! WWII hero, concentration camp liberator, Red Skull butt kicker, American hero. He was not going to fanboy. Nope, and neither was anyone else.

“Hello Kate Bishop, I’m Speedster,” Tommy introduced himself, “What you did out there was um…well it was…um….reallyamazingandIthinkyou’reawesome.”

“Have you never talked to a girl before?” asked Kate.

“Does my mom count?” asked Tommy. Kate shook her head, “Didn’t think so. I mean I’ve talked to girls at school…but they’re…you’re incredible.”

“Thank You,” said Kate taking Tommy’s hand and letting him kiss it,“Take note Patriot, this is how a gentleman is supposed to act.”

“Gentleman…please.” Muttered Eli.

Somehow everyone managed to keep their composure and Captain America broke the ice, “So except Casssie, is this all of you? Or are there any Young Avengers running around out there?”

“No sir,” said Iron Lad, “This is all of us. Patriot. Asguardian and Speedster.”

“It’s an honor sir,” said the twins. The masked boy muttered something under his breath.

“And this is Hulkling,” the green boy gave a faint nod as Kate cleared her throat, “And this is the young lady who helped us at the cathedral.”

“But you’re not a Young Avenger?” asked Captain America.

“No, sir. The boys have a strict, sexist no-supergirls-allowed policy.”

“That’s not true,” began Iron Lad.

“So why isn’t Cassie a Young Avneger?”

“Because she wasn’t part of the Avengers Failsafe Program.”

“There’s an Avengers Failsafe Program?” asked Jessica Jones.

“Not as far as I know. Where did it come from Kang?”

“No, sir. The Vision.” Iron Lad explained that after he downloaded the Vision’s hard drive, he went looking for a way to contact the Avengers with the aim of getting the team back together. Boy was Iron Lad surprised to discover that the program didn’t actually have contacts of the original Avengers inside. But something else entirely. It was a program just for this exact situation to pinpoint the new wave/generation of Avengers.

“What constitutes the next wave?” called Jessica.

“We aren’t sure,” continued Iron Lad, “But what we do know or have been able to figure out is that each of us has some significant tie to the Avengers or Avengers history.

“What kind of tie?” asked Cap.

“We were hoping you could tell us,” said Hulkling.

“Cause we don’t have any clue.” Added Speedster.

“Maybe if we told you our real names,” began Asguardian taking off his headpiece.

“No way, they’re called secret identities for a reason,” snapped Patriot.

“But that’s Captain America and Jewel.” Jessica groaned.

“But she’s a civilian.”

“A _civilian_ who saved your life.” Began Kate. Her and Patriot exchanged words before Speedster got in the middle and broke the two apart. Captain America knew who Kate Bishop was.

“If you wouldn’t mind waiting outside.” Said Cap.

“I don’t mind if she stays,” said Speedster. Everyone collectively ignored his complained, but Kate stuck around to brush her finger along his chin and yell at Patriot to be more like Captain America.

The twins sat down at the table, “I’m Billy Kaplan.”

“Tommy Kaplan…nee Shepherd. We were found on the street when we were six months old.”

“And adopted separately because I had medical issues,” said Billy, “To Rebecca Kaplan a psychologist, and Jeff Kaplan a cardiologist. We also have two little brothers.”

“I got stuck with Frank and Mary Shephard in good ol’, never-going-back New Jersey until Billy and I found each other and the Kaplans adopted me. Does any of this ring any bells?”

Twins…..no, it couldn’t be, “Sorry no,” said Steve. But he made a mental note to get in touch with Pietro.

“What about your powers? Super Speed…and you generate lightening?”

“Kind of yea…um…I can also teleport,” explained Billy, “But we’re not rookies…despite how everything went at the Cathedral.”

“Yeah, we’ve been working with the X-men, to train up.” Jessica wrote that down on her PI Pad. _Call the X-men._ This was not going to end well and it would all become so much more complicated.

“Hulkling what about you?”

“My real name is Teddy Altman and I don’t like have anger issues or anything. I just have super strength…” That seemed to go well and then of course Patriot happened. He went right at Captain America calling him son, blasting him that he wasn’t worthy of that, that Patriot was doing it to honor the original Captain America, the real one, Isaiah Bradley.  

“Look, I appreciate what you kids are trying to do…”

“You want to shut us down….tell me Captain. How exactly do you intend to do that?” And the ground shook, a crash was heard and the wall was torn apart like it was paper.

It was the growing man…or growing men considering instead of growing it shrunk and multiplied before Iron Lad managed to subdue them. And by subdue he activated their homing beacon. The adults in what shall be forever remembered as not their brightest moment locked the kids up for their own safety, while they contacted their parents. They were in serious trouble.

“I got a number for the twins’ parents, but nothing on Hulkling.” Said Jessica

“I’ll call Isaiah and Faith about Patriot.”

“Am I the only one really weirded out by the fact that the twins look just like…”

“Don’t say it Jess.”

“Why not? Someone has to.”

“Those kids weren’t real though,” pushed Stark, “We all know that.”

“But they look just like her and their powers….hold on. Didn’t the kids say they trained with the X-men?” asked Jessica, “We should contact the X-men, maybe they know about the twins and their connection to the Avengers. Besides, how much of their story do we believe?”

Back with the Young Avengers and Cassie, now clad in her father’s old suit, the others were standing around, Tommy was, as usual bouncing off the wall.

“Tommy enough, stop please,” begged Billy.

“Sorry bro.”

“So you’re Tommy,” said Cassie, “And you’re…”

“Billy…that’s Teddy, Eli, and Nate,”

“Hey, secret identity.” The others rolled their eyes.

“No worries, Cassie’s one of us now,” explain Tommy.

“We are so dead,” muttered Eli before trying to open the door to no avail, “Hulkling break it down.”

“How?” demanded the green teen.

“I thought you had super strength?”

“I thought _you_ had super strength.”

Eli glared at him as Billy attempted to electrocute the door to no avail, “Tommy blow it up.”

“And risk hurting everyone from the debris? Are you crazy?”

“Billy what if you used your other powers.”

“Other powers? So it’s not just lightening.”

“Okay, okay, just give me a minute to concentrate. This isn’t an exact science you know.” Billy looked at the door.

“Just breath Billy, you got this,” Tommy placed a gentle hand on his brother’s shoulder.

“Are they always so….” Began Cassie. Teddy just nodded.

“Can you make it disappear? Or teleport us out of here?”

“I can teleport up to two people. I’ve never tried it with so many people. If it goes wrong we might all end up in Wakanda instead of upstairs.”

“You can make doors disappear?”

“Uh…it’s complicated.

“No it’s not,” cut in Eli, “Hulkling has other powers too.”

Eli went on a bit of a rant at the end of which everyone concluded that Cassie was their best way out. Except for the fact that the door was opened before she could do anything.

“Was anyone watching when Iron Man typed in the security codes?”

“I was.” Said Kate proudly standing in the doorway and Cassie ran to hug her.

“I thought you left.”

“Not without you giant girl.”

They found themselves in the dressing area outside the danger room, recovering their gear, and getting ready for a battle.

“…But yeah, when I left they were just talking,” explained Kate after giving them a rundown of what she’d seen. Kate had surprised them all with her outfit, Mockingbird’s mask and battle staves, Hawkeye’s bow and arrow and a sword from another hero. She even brought a shield for Eli to use.

“Nice outfit,” praised the Speedster.

“Thanks,” she winked at him, “Yours isn’t so bad either.”

Together, working as a team for the first time and despite going back and forth on the question of Nate staying in their time or going back to his, left the team hurt and feeling out of place with what the next step of their journey would be.

The twins and Teddy continued the usual routine between them, with Teddy and Billy going on a few dates in between and Tommy taking time between classes to get to know Kate, who wanted to reunite the team and keep it going.

“I don’t know Kate. I want to keep doing this,” said Tommy over the phone, “We all do. But Cap and Iron Man…”

“Just grab Billy and Teddy and Eli and meet us at the park, Cassie and I have everything else covered.”

The next day Tommy had interrupted what would have been a coffee date to get his brother and brother’s boyfriend to the park to meet up with Eli, Kate and Cassie.

They sat down on the steps, with Teddy draping an arm around Billy, their eyebrows raised, with Tommy grinning widely because despite his attitude Billy and he had wanted this. Their parents might have been superheroes, or related to superheroes and this was their chance to get their attention, superhero, X-men, or someone else who would have the answers to their birth.

“What can Cap and Iron Man really do to us?” asked Kate beginning her pitch for the team.

“They can’t take away our powers.” Said her co-host Cassie Lang.

“Those of us who have powers.”

“And they can’t arrest us because we haven’t broken any laws.” Added Cassie.

“Yet.”

“Bringing in the confidence there.” Kate glared at Tommy, but her composure was unwavering.

“The only thing they can do is tell our parents.”

“And even if our parents believe them...”

“—which mine won’t—”

“They can’t stop us.”

Of course they could stop them, they were parents, grounding worked pretty well and if that didn’t work, guilt would and Jewish guilt was the top of the guilt pyramid. The worst of the worst of guilt, a force worse than anything Kang the Conqueror threw at them.

“Think about it, how do you ground a spell-caster, or a super soldier?”

“Or a girl who can talk her way out of anything,” added Billy unable to resist.

“The point is…if we wanted to.”

“We could still be Young Avengers.”

“There go my dreams of coming up with a better team name,” said Teddy, “I guess we’re stuck with Young Avengers.”

“Before you guys say anything we want to show you something.”  They followed the surprisingly excited girls out of the park and down several blocks.

“So Billy,” said Kate as they entered the part of town she needed, “about your new code name.”

“Why do I need a new code name?”

“Because you’re not an asguardian, you’re a wizard. Plus you need a name that won’t become a national joke when the press finds out about you and Teddy.”

Billy sighed as Tommy and Eli chuckled in the background, “I definitely need a new code name.”

“Wizard Boy, Magic Lad,” offered Teddy.

“That better be a joke.”

“What about Caster?” asked Tommy. Billy pondered this option. “It’s short, nice, and tells you everything you need to know.”

“And you can be Speed,” added Kate.

“Caster and Speed,” exclaimed the twins.

“Would I still be Hulkling?” asked Teddy.

“What else do you call a kid who’s half Hulk/ half changeling?” asked Kate.

“Ediface, Fecade?”

“Shifter, Mystique junior,” supplied Tommy.

Hulkling sounded better and better thought Teddy and they agreed that until he knew what his tie to the Avengers was, it made sense to keep the code he had. After all he very well could be someone’s son or grandson, nephew, or even second-cousin twice removed.

Kate and Cassie had surprised them with new costumes and general upgrades. Cassie boasted having some design input and the new team emerged ready to face the world and ready to tell their parents who they were. But would their parents be able to handle not just the news of their children being superheroes, or their true lineage?

Life couldn’t exactly be normal the following weeks as they descended into the new chapter of their superhero activities. The twins decided it would be best to wait to tell their parents until after Passover, as there would be too many family members around and it would just be crazy. Rebecca had thought about inviting Teddy, but sadly the guest list proved to be too large to add an extra person. Rachel and her husband, plus Bubbe Lizzy and Grandpa Hershel would be there, Mom’s parents, as well as Aunt Rachel’s eight year old daughter Hannah and between Rebecca and her men there would already be six of them, plus six more. It ended up a fun night with her younger boys, and Hannah chasing after the Afikomen.

“So should we tell them?” asked Tommy.

“Well I was going to come out eventually anyway,” added Billy.

“There’s your coming out and then what we have to tell them.” Said Tommy, “That’s going to be a mess.”

“It’ll be a mess either way,” Billy’s hands were shaking Tommy wrapped an arm around his brother as Hannah screamed in the back.

“I found it! I am the queen and you are all my peasants.”

The adults rolled their eyes, the kids burst out laughing, “Tommy, this is what you get for dubbing her an official princess and we her subjects.”

“I’m perfectly fine with that.”

“Of course you are.”

They had a plan. The following week they would tell their parents and damn be the consequences. Of course telling your parents you’re a superhero isn’t as easy as one would think.

 

 

 

                                                                     


	14. Mr. Hyde

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Billy comes out to his parents, the Young Avengers face off Hyde and Tommy notices something odd.

The week had started great for the Yong Avengers. They had their first outing as an official team, girls included and everything. They took down the shocker, which wasn’t that hard, and ended up recovering all the stolen loot and while the rest of the group collected the money, Speed (Speedster didn’t quite fit his personality according to Kate) managed to fix the dent in the vault Shocker had made.

The following day, the news reports hit of the take down. Billy holding a bowl of oatmeal, stood in the living room on that fateful morning. Tommy, having just emerged from the kitchen draped an arm over his brother.

“Dad wants to make eggs,” said Tommy.

“Teddy will be here any minute.”

“Speaking off,” began Tommy releasing his brother, “When are you going to tell Mom and Dad?”

“You mean when are _we…_ ” Billy indicated to Tommy and himself, “Going to tell them.”

“No, I mean you…about Teddy and what you two are.”

Billy started coughing, “Oh look, it’s the report about us.” He quickly turned away from his brother and looked at the TV.

 _“The Young Avengers easily apprehended the shocker, seen here at the scene of the incidents with their two new teammates.”_ Said a Male reporter.

 _“ZNN sources have confirmed that the teen heroes recovered all the stolen money and were able to fix the vault for the bank.”_ Said another one.

“Billy and Tommy,” came the voice of Rebecca Kaplan from the kitchen, “If both of you don’t get in here right now and have breakfast with your family you run the risk of developing antisocial behaviors, scoring lower on standardized tests, and not getting into the college of your choice.”

“Don’t tell them that, Rebecca,” called Jeff from the kitchen.  Rebecca popped her head out from the kitchen and stepped into the living room where the reporter was interviewing one of the bank tellers.

 _“It’s incredible, they’re just teens,”_ said the elderly looking teller from the bank.

“What are you boys watching?” asked Rebecca as Billy hastily switched the television off.

Tommy was already munching on one of Hank’s protein bars and mouthed, “Some teen heroes stopped the Shocker from robbing a bank.”

“Is that so?” Asked Rebecca, “Well even they need to have breakfast with their families, come on, having powers doesn’t get you out of family time.”

A knock on the door forced Billy to shove his breakfast bowl at his mother, “That’s Teddy, we better go.”

“You eat,” said Rebecca shoving the bowl back, “I’ll get the door.” She crossed the living room area towards the door, “Theodore! You look hungry, Jeff’s making eggs.”

“Oh that’s okay, I’m really n—”

Rebecca cut him off, “Jeff, Teddy’s here.” And there was a faint question of how Teddy would like his eggs. Tommy giggled in the background.

“Your parents seem to be in a good mood,” said Teddy smirking, “Which means you haven’t told them yet.”

Billy grunted and Tommy continued to laugh, “If you guys don’t tell them, Captain America will.”

“What are the odds Cap was bluffing?” asked Billy.

“Zero, he’s Captain America,” replied Tommy, “He could give Abraham Lincoln and George Washington a run for their money in the honesty department.”

“Ugh, we have to tell them.”

“I’m sure they’ll understand,” posed Teddy, “And if not, you can work your _magic_ on them and make them understand. So are you going to tell them?”

“Tell us what?” came Rebecca as she and Jeff entered from the kitchen. Teddy grimaced and looked apologetically at Billy.

Tommy was at a loss for words so it was left to Billy, “Mom, Dad I um…we…there’s no easy way to tell you this…” he began.

“It’s okay honey, we know. We’ve always known,” said Rebecca.

“I didn’t your mother had to tell me.”                                         

Tommy looked onward at the exchange, something wasn’t quite right here. Rebecca Kaplan was good at her job and had incredible intuition, not just for a mother, but for a Jewish mother. She was good, but what she this good?

“And what you have to know is that we love you, we’re proud of you.” Well alright maybe she did know. That wouldn’t be the worst thing and it would make life a lot easier and if she hadn’t said anything until this point it meant that she was okay with what they were doing. Right?

Rebecca dropped her husband’s hand and walked over to Billy and Teddy. _Wait!_ She draped her arms over the two.

“And we’re just so happy you boys found each other,” she practically sobbed. _What? Oh_!

“Now Ted,” pushed Jeff as Tommy tried to hold back his laughter, “How do you like your eggs?”

It took another ten minutes for them to make it out the door and as soon as the handle clicked with the mechanism Tommy burst out laughing.

“Well…I guess that’s one less thing to tell them,” tried Teddy with a weak smile. The speedster continued to laugh uncontrollably.

“That was…” began Billy looking blankly at the street in front of them, “Will you quit laughing.” 

“Best parents ever award, right there.” Said Tommy wiping tears from his eyes.

 Fifteen minutes later, the boys met Cassie and Kate in front of the Bishop Publishing building.

“So you come out to your folks yet?” asked Cassie.

“One of us did,” said Tommy snorting

“Just not in the way I intended.” Said Billy, “Good news is, my parents think Teddy will make a great son-in-law.”

“That’s amazing,” said Kate.

“Now telling our parents we’re superheroes should be a cinch,” said Tommy, “They already know we have powers. They just don’t quite know what we’ve been doing with them.”

“So really, we have nothing to fear from Captain America at this point. The worst is over.”

“Maybe the rest of us should just head Cap off at the pass before he can get to our parents?” suggested Kate.

“And say what?”

Tommy rolled up his sleeves, “Oh please Oh mighty Captain America, Star Spangled Man with a Plan, please don’t tell our parents we’re superheroes.”

“We’ll think of something,” Kate said dryly.

“And worst comes to worst, Billy can always zap him.”

“Why do all of your plans involve me zapping someone?” asked Billy eyeing his boyfriend.

Teddy shrugged, “We should wait for Eli.”

“I wonder what’s keeping him.” Billy checked his watch. They gave him five more minutes before Kate tried his cell phone, no answer, “Do you think his Grandma found out and…?”

“Ooh.” Cooed Tommy.

“What? Locked him in his room?” asked Kate, “Eli’s a super soldier. Even if his grandma wanted to stop him, there’s nothing she can do.”

“She could make him feel guilty though.” Said Billy.

“And Grandma Guilt is the worst,” said Tommy.

“Just ask our Bubbe,” they finished together.

“Okay, there’s that. Thank You, Weasley twins.”

“I hate to even ask this,” posed Teddy, “But what if he did something stupid.”

“Like going after MGH dealers on his own?”

“And getting shot at.”

“Locator spell, got it.” Billy was floating up in the air holding on to his brother and boyfriend in a matter of seconds.

“Is…is it working?”

“He’s floating, there’s blue magic sparkling, he’s in full Caster mode,” said Tommy.

“Found him.” Said Billy.

“Is he…” began Cassie.

“He did something stupid.” Mr. Hyde. Why couldn’t it be a rogue hydra operation, no he had to go after the MGH creator, drug dealer, chemist Mr. Hyde? Damn it Eli, what were you thinking? Well, apparently he wasn’t.

Billy found him while the others were distracting Hyde, juicing himself up, “Eli what are you doing?” but the answer was already painfully clear, “Where are your powers Eli?”

“Please Billy,” pleaded the not-so-super soldier. Caster was at a loss for words as he rushed to free his teammates. The nameless superhero with the bow had been captured by Hyde and the others were not yet successful in stopping him.

“Speed, distraction.” Called Caster and the older twin began making tiny molecules explode around the monster as Caster managed to teleport the nameless archer to a safe distance.

“Way to go Caster,” called the archer, “Thanks for the save.”

“Let’s stop Hyde, then you can thank me.”

Hyde was surrounded. But he did not seem to be intimidated by teen heroes.

“Is Eli alright?” asked the purple-clad young woman.

“I’m fine,” replied Eli, but he looked anything but, with a jacket that was stretched to its limited and a larger body. Patriot threw the punch, knocking Hyde right to the ground, “Get up!” he screeched.

“Happy to oblige.” Hyde knocked Patriot to the side with ease.

“Get away from him,” called Caster, and let a power ball rip at Hyde, to no effect.

“Caster get the others out of here.” Patriot was not going to go down without a fight and kicked Hyde with the might of his legs, “I’ll handle this myself.

“I think Patriot’s officially lost it.” Called Speed.

Hyde rammed into the wall, creating a large indentation within it and that’s when they noticed the item in their teammate’s hand.

“Patriot drop the syringe.”

“You heard him Patriot,” said Hyde, knocking Caster out of the way and stepping right on Patriot’s arm, “You’ve had quite enough MGH for one day. Any more might kill you before I get the chance to.”  

They were in too deep. They were in way too deep. What did they think they were doing? They stopped Kang, or well Kang stopped Kang. They couldn’t stop Hyde. He had Patriot pressed to the wall, with chemicals vials falling all around.

“Don’t worry Hyde. It’s not for me,” blasted Patriot, “It’s for you.” And he stabbed Hyde with the syringe, throwing him back and allowing Caster and nameless teen hero in purple to assist him.

“He’s getting bigger,” said Caster.

“And the crew of reporters is getting larger.” Added Speed flying between them as Hyde grew bigger and spazzing before completely passing out.

“Is he alive?” asked Stature as Hulkling leaned over to check for a pulse.

“He’s breathing, but…”

The archer without a name had a face of terror on her, “Patriot what did you do?”

“He was going to kill us, you saw him. He was out of control.”

“I’m not talking about Hyde, I’m talking about you.” Said Kate putting a hand on his shoulder, “What did you do to yourself?”

Patriot’s anger grew and he brushed her hand away, “What did Billy tell you.”

The exchange was lost to the others as the Avengers arrived, with a very pregnant Jessica Jones, “Stand down Patriot, or we’ll take you down.” Ordered Captain America.

“You want a fight _Captain_ ,” said Patriot, disgust in his voice, “You’ve got one.” The other young heroes exchanged worried glances.

“I want to help you son.” Jessica’s face was a mixture of guilt and concern.

“I asked you for help. I asked you to train us, you said no. You said you’d do everything in your power to stop us. Well here we are Captain, what are you going to do?” Patriot was practically foaming at the mouth. The other heroes were too stunned to say anything, “Thought so. Come on guys.” He turned to his teammates whose expressions matched that of their idols.

Billy’s face twisted, “Eli, Cap’s right. You need help.”

Eli scoffed, “What I need are some friends I can trust. I’m leaving, you do what you want.” Eli turned towards the door, but the next thing he saw was black.

Having been brought to Avengers tower, the Avengers quickly recounted what they had learned from Steve’s visit with Eli’s grandmother. Steve then made a calculating mistake. He told Cassie about Jessica’s visit to her house.

It was a mere moment later that Eli came back and announced to the team that he would no longer be a hero. He had quit.

“There is still a lot we don’t know about you,” said Steve, referring to the team of heroes, “And I think given recent events you might think about quitting yourselves.”

“Why? Because you’re concerned about us?” asked Speed, standing up and putting his goggles on his head, but not yet over his eyes, “Please, you’re showing your concern, by hurting us and instead of helping us figure out our heritage, or train us, you go and talk to Cassie’s mom? Do you have any idea what that might do to her? Of course not, because you’re Avengers and you always do the right thing. Psht, some heroes.”

Speed followed in the direction Eli had left and the rest of the team followed closely behind. Suddenly though he stopped, and Billy ran right into him.

“Nicely said,” said Billy, though catching the look on his brother’s face, “Tommy what is it?”

“Don’t you think it’s weird that the X-men couldn’t detect us for years and then suddenly Nate shows up and knows exactly who we are and what our powers are?” 

Billy opened his mouth to say something, but he had no idea what. “How did the Avengers failsafe program know about us? How did the original Vision?”

“Maybe it’s time we investigated,” pushed Billy, “Not today though.” Tommy nodded and the rest of the team headed for their respective homes thinking about what might be coming next.


	15. More Questions Than Answers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The twins visit the X-men. Jess has a conversation with someone important, there are milkshakes and Kat Farrell is very nosy.

Spring break came at the perfect moment for the twins, as a new chapter of their lives loomed, the question of their origins and an investigation into what occurred the day they appeared outside the police station. The only people who could help them were Kitty and Professor Xavier.

Being freed from school for a week gave them the time they needed to finally get some answers. Billy promised to text Teddy and after informing their parents what they were doing, they parted that Saturday morning and set off to the X-mansion.

Seeing the twins appear at the mansion was exciting for Kitty and she ran out to meet them and hugged them tightly, not having seen them since December.

“What brings you boys to the mansion?” asked Kitty.

“We were hoping the professor could look into our minds again, maybe help us figure out where that light came from, the one that took us from our parents.” Kitty’s face fell slightly, but returned a second later.

“Sorry boys, the Professor is still absent from the mansion. But Emma’s still here. The old bitch just won’t leave…oops, don’t tell your mother I said that.”

The twins had very little choice on the matter, even if Emma gave them a bad feeling. Kitty wrapped an arm around each of them and they walked inside the mansion. The school was bustling with eager students bustling about, some were in casual clothes, some were returning from what could only have been a danger room session with Wolverine.

They entered Emma’s office, it was cold and plain, with a large bookcase and desk made out of a dark wood showing off Emma’s class and intimidation abilities.

“My favorite twins are here to see you,” said Kitty and sat down in Emma’s chair as soon as she vacated it. She sent a glare to Kitty, “Nope, I’m staying to supervise.”

Emma groaned, “What can I do for you boys?”

“So…you probably know that…um…”

“You two have been out gallivanting as Young Avengers?” asked Emma.

“Gallivanting. Geez grandma,” said Kitty.

“Anyway…we need you to dive into our minds and figure out how Iron Lad was able to find us when we were shielded from the X-men. We need to know what that light was…” Billy ranted.

“Point being, we need to know who our parents are. There are still way too many questions and…we have to know.”

“And you’re willing to let me in?” asked Emma cautiously, remembering her last attempt to enter their minds. 

“Yes!”

“Very well, though I doubt I will be able to tell you who your parents are.” Emma lied.

“We’ll take what we can get.” Kitty fidgeted in her seat as the twins responded.

Emma linked them together in a matter much similar to that of Professor Xavier the year before.

“It appears that your minds were indeed shielded from psychic activity…quite odd.” She went through their memories trying to pinpoint their earliest ones and saw the light.

“Be careful, Professor didn’t get too far on this.” Emma looked at the light and tried to find where the energy came from. It was a bright light, but its origins, its energy signature….it…no. Was it possible?

They mentally returned to the mansion, “Well…um…” Emma psychically called Hank into the room, who had only a week before sent a fresh supply of protein bars to Tommy.

“Hi Dr. McCoy,” greeted the twins.

“Hello boys, might I trouble you and run a few tests which might end up being very fruitful for you?” The twins agreed and after several scans, swabs, and a blood sample, Hank sat back in his office, looking at the computer screen.

“Well, I am not magic expert,” said Hank, “However, what I can tell you is that…even though I’m not sure how it happened, but it appears that the magic that brought you to New York, from…uh…wherever you were before came from William.”

“Are you saying that I stole us from our parents?” Asked Billy.

“Not at all, what I am saying is that you might have been the thing that saved you.”

“You saved us? At the tender age of not-even-one, way to go bro,” said Tommy patting his brother on the shoulder.

“What exactly did I save us from? And How?”

Emma and Hank looked at Kitty, “No idea,” said Hank, “I don’t know the magic itself or where it came from, but I can tell you that it was either William, or William somehow managed to tap into it.” Kitty hid her face behind a computer console, “The only thing I can tell you is that the block on you is a different energy signature from the one that appeared that day.”

“Well that doesn’t really help us,” said Tommy, “Except...it kind of explains our separation.” He turned to his twin, “Do you remember the day we met? You magically exhausted yourself and I had to run us back to New York.” Billy nodded. “Right so…that means that because you were so little, the magic probably overloaded you.” He grabbed Billy’s hand, “It explains why you were in the hospital and we were separated.”

“Wow…if I really did that as a baby…” whispered Billy.

“Congrats little bro, you just became 60% cooler.” The wizard smiled softly.

“Right,” said Kitty, “But that still doesn’t explain the psychic block which prevents anyone from entering your mind without permission, or how we couldn’t detect you.” Emma looked like she was ready to kill the younger woman.  

“Who has the power to do that?”

“Psychics, or powerful witches,” said Kitty, Emma glared, “Somebody wanted to protect you boys. And whether it was done on purpose or subconsciously we may never know.”

Jessica Jones meanwhile, with a little help from a friend dressed in red, managed to get a copy of the police report filed the day the twins were found. She poured over every inch of it, with Luke providing her with sustenance in the form of his fantastical grilled cheese sandwich.

“Find anything yet?”

“Well, the only thing I have is this weird light thing the witnesses describe,” said Jessica taking the tea he was holding out for her. Damn it, she missed coffee.

“Well that’s something…if you want, I could ask Danny about it, or we could go to Dr. Strange.”

“I think…first I need to talk to the X-men….uh, Kitty Pryde. Know her?”

“Nope,” replied Luke.

“Has Steve talked about it?”

“You mean has he talked about the twins looking exactly like Wanda and Pietro, or has he talked to Pietro? The answer to both is no. He hasn’t. I think he’s in denial.”

“Why?” asked Jessica.

“Because it means that what Wanda did was justified, that the Avengers really did abandon her and that her children were real.”

“I...if they are her kids, I’m not sure I can blame her,” said Jessica, her hand going to her stomach, “So from what I gathered from Clint’s old files from the West Coast Avengers, Master Pandemonium abducted the twins when they were babies. He believed the twins were part of Mephisto’s lost soul or something along those lines—Clint’s handwriting is atrocious—and he makes the point that Agatha Harkness said that the twins were mere magical constructs made by Wanda out of a need to have children with her android husband. Interesting.”

Luke kissed her head gently, “I’m sure you’ll figure it out. If you want I can give Dr. Strange a call, see what he can tell about the magic from that day…or if it was magic.” Now there was an idea.

Having more questions than answers given to them, the twins returned home rather solemn and the events that followed would forever change everything for them.

With the twins teleporting home Emma turned to glare at Kitty, “We said we wouldn’t tell them anything.”

“Technically we said we wouldn’t tell them who their parents were. You didn’t say anything about not helping them figure it out for themselves.” Pointed out Kitty.

“Semantics. Do you have any idea what that would do?”

“Do you?” Emma remained silent, “Thought so.” She looked at the caller ID on her phone and wondered why someone would be calling her. She picked up and heard the voice of Jessica Jones on the other end, “How’d you get my number?”

“I am a detective.” Laughed Jessica. Hours later the two ladies sat outside a diner with Kitty slurping down a chocolate milkshake like it was a luxury denied to her.

“Is this about the twins?” asked Kitty. Jessica nodded sipping her own shake, “Thought so. What do you want to know?”

“Are they Wanda’s?”

Kitty took one last large sip of the depleted milkshake and sighed, “I can neither confirm nor deny because apparently we’ve been sworn to secrecy.”

“Why?”

“Between you, me, and the seat cushion, I think they’re scared.”

“Of the twins?”

“Well…Emma didn’t say it, but they wanted to keep the kids in the dark because I think they’re scared of Billy. You’ve seen what he can do.” Jessica nodded, “The other aspect to this is we don’t know where Wanda is and if the twins find her—and they’ll certainly go looking—there’s no way of knowing if they’ll be safe. Her mental state is too unpredictable, especially given her powers. Personally I don’t think she’d harm her own kids, especially not after thinking they’ve been dead for sixteen years.”

“Do you know where she is?”

Kitty shook her head, “Magneto took her and that’s all I know. He could have taken her anywhere.”

“The twins have a right to know.”

“That’s what Kurt and I said. I worry about them…especially now, there’s no way to prevent them from not finding out, especially now that they know there’s an Avenger connection through this…Iron kid?”

“Not really Iron Lad, but the Avengers Fail Safe program that he downloaded from the original Vision.”

“How did Vision know?” asked Kitty, “Wasn’t he their father technically?”

“This situation has more questions than answers.” Admitted Jessica staring at her left over milkshake. She sighed seeing Kitty’s eager eyes and pushed the glass to the excited woman.

 The following day Jessica found herself at the Daily Bugle. “So what’s the story with the Young Avengers?” Farrell asked, “Witnesses said Patriot was on drugs, that he attacked Captain America and had to be subdued by his own teammates.” Jessica sighed turning to face the woman, “Is it true?”

“How would I know?”

“You were at the scene. That’s you in the photo, Jess. Behind Spider-Man.” Jessica groaned.

“Oh my God, I look huge.”

“That was three days ago and the kids haven’t been seen or heard from since. Did Cap stop them?”

“Wish I knew,” said Jessica.

“Well if you don’t maybe Cassie Lang does.” Jessica’s face twisted, “Ant-Man’s daughter who happens to look exactly like the giant Ant-Girl wearing her Dad’s costume.”

Jessica stood up, “Lay off Cassie, she’s fourteen.”

“I promise not to go anywhere near her….if you promise to get me an exclusive with the Young Avengers.”

Glaring at her, Jessica watched her turn and leave, “You’re not going after those kids.” It wasn’t a statement, it was a threat.

“If you bring them to me I won’t have to.” In that moment, Jessica remembered that although she worked with Kat, they could never be friends.

Jessica went out and tackled the Young Avengers one by one, by three, by one. First talking to Cassie, hen Kate, then the twins and Teddy,  and finally Eli.

Teddy and Billy had been hanging out in the park when Tommy arrived to let them know that Jessica was on her way to meet with them. Teddy rehashed his desire to fit in and his past with Greg, admitting that it was that experience that made him a better person in the end.

“Billy, Tommy, what about you?” asked Jessica.

“I was always the awkward kid.” Tommy nodded behind him, “Our first time using our powers though, we didn’t even know each other yet. It was kind of a shock, a panic attack, and figuring out what to do with this new information, then quickly realizing that I couldn’t quite control it.”

“For me, it was kind of obvious once my hair turned white.”

“Your hair wasn’t white at birth?” asked Teddy as they walked along the park.

“No,” explained Tommy, “In fact, my hair was just like Billy’s. One day when I was twelve I woke up and there it was. Freaked the hell out of me and shortly after that I ran out of the house in Jersey and ended up in Philadelphia. I met Billy shortly after that.”

“Fun times. Located him in Philadelphia and the power required exhausted me so Tommy had to run us home until my powers recharged.”

“So what do I tell Kat Farrell?” asked Jessica Jones.

“She’s going to do the story anyway, right?” Jessica nodded, “Might as well tell her the real story.”

“Billy, Teddy, I have to warn you. She’ll probably ask if the rumors about you two are true.”

“Should we tell her?”

“That’s your choice,” said Jessica, “You guys are a pretty put together.”

“What do you think?” asked Billy.

“Why not? Besides, why should Northstar have all the fun?” Tommy made a gagging noise in the background.

Convincing Kate had been easy after that and together the team, minus Eli surprised Kat Farell in front of the Bugle and gave her the exclusive interview she had wanted.

_The Young Avengers are an unsanctioned team with no official affiliation with the Avengers. They are a rag tag team of heroes, of all types: a size changer, a shape-shifter with super strength, twin fighting force of speed and lightening, and a weapons master. They are a team of teenagers who felt the need to go out and make a difference…_

_…“It was our former teammate Iron Lad that brought us together,” tells Hulkling, “The Avengers were disbanded and someone had to step up and fill that void, especially knowing that Kang the Conqueror was coming.”_

_“We were all so awkward at first,” Tells Caster ,formerly known as Asguardian who decided to change his code name to avoid mockery over his relationship with fellow teammate Hulkling, “Some of us were unsure of ourselves, but we all wanted to help people.”_

_“Our first real outing and Iron Lad nearly gets killed by Elektro. We weren’t the brightest.  But we’ve learned from that experience.” Pushed Speed._

_The Hawkeye-esque hero, with the shades has not chosen an official name and scoffed at Speed’s suggestion of “Hawkingbird.” When pressed on her lack of code name, she replied, “It’ll come to me when it comes to me.”_

_Stature is arguably the youngest of the teen heroes, but far from the least experienced. Between the group it seems like all of them have some type of training, whether self-defense or otherwise. They are a strong team, which has focused on precision and teamwork, over teenage antics._

_“Oh, there’s still plenty of antics,” explains Stature, “When the twins start to banter with the criminal it’s hard to turn them off.”_

_“But we’ve improved on the parts that were lacking,” adds Hulkling, “More teamwork, and more strategy vs charging in first and asking questions later.” Clearly adding women to the team has been a great asset to the rest of the boys. When pushed about Patriot, however the team was reluctant to speak of it simply remarking that “We miss him. It’s not really the same without him._


	16. Family Matters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everything gets worse long before it gets better

Family Matters

Trying not to be heroes proved difficult for everyone. Cassie had nearly jumped out of the car when she heard about the jumper in the Flatiron District on the car radio. Her mom took it well. As soon as she was eighteen Cassie would leave her mom’s house and never look back. This was her plan and her mom couldn’t stop her.

Billy and Tommy were half way out the door, happy to skip first period when out of nowhere Ms. Marvel arrived to save the day. They got to school on time, but they were hardly happy about it.

After school they met outside the library, Kate and Cassie had arrived first and the twins arrived shortly after. Finally Teddy was the last to join after apprehending a thief in broad daylight…and shifting into Reed Richards because who else would be walking around in broad daylight in a letterman jacket.

Tommy chuckled in the background as Kate lamented “I thought we agreed to keep a low profile?”

“C’mon the guy stole her purse. You would have done the same thing…although probably with more tact.”

“Are you kidding?” asked Cassie, “I was this close to skipping school when I heard about the Flatiron jumper this morning.”

“Seriously Billy and I just got to school when we heard, but then Ms. Marvel showed up and saved the day.” Said Tommy.

There was nothing they could do. Costumes or no costumes they couldn’t stop using their powers (those who had them), they couldn’t stop being heroes. It was in their blood, even if they weren’t sure about who else that blood belonged to.

“Maybe we should just tell our parents and deal with the consequences.” Said Teddy.

“Believe me,” began Cassie, “That is the one thing you don’t want. My mom’s been a mess since she found out. She’s terrified I’m going to get myself killed, and even more afraid of what could happen if my step-father found out.” That posed an interesting question, how would their parents react. Kate had no interest in telling her father, he had no interest in her life period, so his opinion didn’t matter to her. Teddy’s mom would probably be as over protective as she had been his entire life and would probably ground him for all eternity. The twins however weren’t sure how their parents would react, they didn’t have a problem with them being mutants so maybe…just maybe…      

The following moments happened far too quickly, an argument with Eli and then the Super Skrull attacked trying to kidnap Teddy. Between a building Teddy had thrown him in, Billy almost getting mind controlled and Speed being tossed aside right into the lion statue in front of the doors to the library they ran for it. Eli or no Eli, as he abandoned them in front of the doors to the subway.  Teddy’s clothes were in shambles and Billy handed him his brown sweater without question and fixed the rest of his clothes as not to appear ripped apart and draw too much attention.

“Where are we going?” asked Kate.

“I should probably go home,” said Teddy, “My mom’s probably freaking out.”

“We’ll go to our house,” said the twins.

Billy put a hand on Teddy’s shoulder, “Call your mom. Let her know you’re okay.” Kate handed him her cell. He tried her cell and her work phone twice. Nothing. She wasn’t picking up.

They got off at the Upper West Side stop and walked to the correct building, taking the elevator to the eighth floor.

“Can I as a terrible question,” began Kate.

“How do I know my mom’s not a skrull?” Asked Teddy.

“That’s the one.”

“She sells real-estate, she does Pilates, there’s no way she’s a skrull.” Teddy was of course fully convinced of this.

“What about your dad?”

“He died from cancer before I was born.” Damn.

“But why would the super skrull think you’re a skrull?” Asked Tommy, “It’s so weird, he seems to be awfully sure of himself.”

“He’s nuts,” pointed out Billy.

“Probably,” said Teddy.

“But that doesn’t answer the question.” Said Cassie, “Even the worst bad guys have a thought process. They know what they want and why they believe they should have it or need it.”

“Speaking from experience there, Cas?” asked Kate as they stepped out of the elevator.

“Actually yes. Look at the Shocker, he wanted the money because he needed it. It doesn’t matter that the money belonged in a bank or that he could probably find a real job and go straight. He wanted the money because he thinks he has a right to it.”

“That’s a good point,” said Teddy as Billy opened the door, “Still, I have to go look for my mom.”

“This is way out of our league,” said Kate, “We have to call the Avengers and then we’ll find your…”

The door opened and there was Mrs. Altman, sitting on the couch, “Mom!”  She jumped off the couch upon seeing her son, “Oh Thank God you’re alright.” She hugged him tighter than she ever had before.

“What are you doing here?” asked Teddy after she released him.

 “Mom, what’s going on?” asked Billy seeing his own mom coming out with a tray of tea and cookies.

“Teddy’s mom called here looking for him. She sounded upset so I—.”

“Something’s not right,” whispered Tommy.

“What’s wrong Teddy?” asked Sarah.

“Long story…mom…are you okay?” asked Teddy.

“Honey, there’s something I need to tell you.” But whatever she was about to say was muffled by the sound of an explosion ripping through the apartment and sending everyone backwards.

The Super-Skrull had Eli, floating in the air, outside the window he had just blown up. Tommy felt powerless as he and Billy helped their mom up.

“Billy, Tommy you want to tell me what’s going on?” asked Rebecca.

“We’re superheroes,” the twins said.

“Sorry mom, we tried to tell you…” said Billy.

“We’re part of the Young Avengers.” Added Tommy.

“Let Eli go,” said Teddy, “And I’ll go with you.” Sarah Altman begged him not to. But the Super Skrull was prepared for Teddy’s sacrifice. Clearly he had been counting on it, “It’s okay Mom. Once he sees I’m not a Skrull.”

“But you are Hatchling,” said the Skrull, “I will prove it.” A probe flew out, “By reverting you to your original form.”

Teddy shielded his mother “Mom, stand back.” Whatever the Skrull could throw at him Teddy could heal from it. But when he looked, nothing had changed, “I’m still me. See, I told you, I’m not a...” But the gasps behind him told a different story. Teddy turned and saw his mother, “Mom.”

“Teddy, I can explain.”  Rebecca gasped more out of the unexpected than of the actual green skin that covered Mrs. Altman’s body.

“The female is not your mother. She is a traitor to her race,” Snarked the Skrull.

“The empress ordered me to protect him,” She reached into her purse and pulled out a gun. Teddy had never seen his mother react violently to anything, let alone pull out an actual weapon, “Even from the likes of you.” The blow caught the skrull by surprise and Eli fell to the ground, rummaging up and as far away from the line of fire as he could.

“Consider your orders terminated!” he sent off a wave of fire at Teddy’s mom and Tommy charged at super speed, knocking the super skrull back. Billy tried to save her with his magic, but the fire was either too strong, or the stress of what he was doing proved too much for the wizard. Mrs. Altman lay dead on the ground.

“Billy,” said Tommy, grabbing his twin’s hand, “It…you can stop. She’s…she’s gone.”

“So is Teddy,” said Eli looking at the hole in the wall.

“Oh no, no, no, no,” begged Billy. This was not supposed to happen. You fight the bad guys, you beat the bad guys you go home. They were in too deep. Of course they were in too deep. The Avengers had been right. Shit! They were right. His breathing shortened as he regained his composure.

Tommy maneuvered him to the kitchen to sit down and then went and got Rebecca too before he turned to the others, “Grab your gear, suit up, and meet us at the Bishop publishing building. We’ll figure out what to do from there.”

“We need to call the Avengers,” said Kate.

“I know,” said Tommy, “But right now, gear, meeting, I’ll make sure Billy’s there. But right now, we need to be with our mom.”

Cassie and Eli nodded, and the three headed for the door.

“G-d what are we going to do now,” whispered Rebecca restraining tears.

“I guess we’re moving. You did say you were getting tired of the city,” tried Tommy meekly.

“We need to call your father…and the boys and…” She looked at her sons, “Billy…honey.” Billy bit his lip, “It’s okay honey; you did your best.” He nodded. Rebecca stood up and hugged her son as if his life depended on it, “I know you did. You were so strong.”

“I…I can try to uh…fix…I mean…the wall…”

“That can wait. I think your father and I are going to take your brothers and visit Bubbe Sophie and we can figure this out then.” Tommy meanwhile had already gone to the hardware store and boarded up the large new ventilation hole. Super Speed had home improvement perks. “Thank you Tommy.”

“It’ll at least keep the rain out until…uh, we decide what to do next.” Or until Billy fixed the hole.

Billy stood up, “We rescue Teddy.” Tommy nodded, “Mom will you be okay?”

“Oh, I’m…uh… I should…I mean…yes, I’ll call your father. You boys go on, find Teddy and please be careful,” there go the waterworks again, she thought and hugged them with all her might.

The twins arrived at the Bishop publishing building with Kate, Eli and Cassie already to go. Not being one to teleport so many people, Billy created a magical disc and together everyone flew to the Avengers tower.  

Only the Avengers were off world and Jarvis was giving them unnecessary sass that they hadn’t asked for. He served them drinks, with a young Vision looking over them, and left to contact the Avengers.

“We could just ditch this and go after Teddy ourselves,” said Speed.

“How? There are five of us,” snapped Patriot.

**“Six, including me,”**

“Six if you include the Vision,” pointed out Caster, “It’ll be enough.”

“To take on the full skrull armada.”

“Who said anything about the Skrull armada?” demanded Speed.

“We’ll be in and out. It’s a rescue operation, not a war. We won’t need the Avengers and if the Armada is there, or is on their way, we can get to safety and have the Avengers deal with the rest of it. They’ll be notified soon anyway, right?” Said Caster.

“You do know how crazy this sounds and how much could go wrong.” Said Kate, “We could go covert.”

“And maybe while we formulate a plan,” said Speed, “You can think of a code name.”

Kate glared at him.

The Avengers, as it turns out were away on a mission to somewhere that, according to Jarvis, was classified, even from him. It was moot and he worked extremely hard to convince the kids to stay, wasting their time telling them about the Avengers.

Billy and Tommy walked past a large tapestry and stood staring at it, Tommy in front of Quicksilver and Billy in front of the Scarlet Witch.

 Eli walked over, “Okay, we have to get out of here and fast. If you can cast a locator spell, that would be great and we can get there while the rest of us come up with a way to distract Jarvis.”

“Distraction?” asked Tommy with a mischievous grin, “I’m your guy.”

“And that was how Hawkeye and Mockingbird got married,” explained Jarvis.

“Fascinating,” said Kate dryly, “So are the Avengers officially back together or what is it?”

“They are a group of heroes who team up on occasion to stop big threats.”

“So that’s a maybe?” There was a loud crash and a gust of wind which prompted Jarvis to excuse himself and head down the stairs.

“Ready to go?” asked Speed, “That won’t distract him for long.”

“What did you do?”

The speedster turned to his brother, “Got a location?”

“I do, let’s go.”

 **“Mr. Jarvis would not like it if he came back and you weren’t here.”**  Pointed out the new Vision.

“Jarvis told you to keep an eye on us.” Said Cassie and a short moment later they were on their way to a plot of farm land in Connecticut where a large brick house stood, with a faint light on the top floor.

“Are you sure Teddy’s here?” asked Patriot.

“Never doubt the magic,” said Caster, “He’s here…it’s all a disguise.”

**“I am reading thermal temperatures of two non-human individuals.”**

It was late, night had fallen a long time ago and it was still hours until morning. Speed made a hole in the wall, right where the fake front door was and entered to find a sleek modern spaceship on the inside.

“Have no fear, the cavalry is here.” boasted Speed as they flew in and the Super Skrull easily walked through Speed, and by through, he rammed his Thing first right into Speed’s face before the Vision rendered him unconscious.

“How did you find me?” asked Teddy as Caster rushed to hug the young man.

“Locator spell.” Explained Caster. It was obvious! He turned to his twin, “You okay?”

“I think the stupid super-skrull broke my nose,” said Speed clutching his nose.

“Let me take a look.” Said Caster.  

Caster easily healed his brother’s nose, even if his own healing factor could have done it. And a blast rained on the ship, hitting the skrull. They looked like an army, a well-oiled blue skinned army, in very tight pants.

“It’s alright child.” Said the first one, “The Super-Skrull will not harm you, or anyone, ever again. The Kree protect their own…and you are one of us.” Just the skrull armada, they thought, easy enough for the Avengers to stop, they thought. So much for that.


	17. Family Matters Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the Skrull invasion is important...but is not the focus of this story. The twins get confirmation on their genetics. Tommy's angry...and words are exchanged. The United Nations building is still destroyed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally through Family Matters, and I had to cut a few things as a lot of events happened just as they did in the original comic. Next chapter things get interesting....very M...interesting.

Things got worse quickly after the Kree showed up. Captain Av-Rom of the Kree Imperial Militia was ready to take Teddy back to their ship and whisk him away whether he wanted to or not. Turns out Captain Mar-Vell was his father, well there’s one Avengers connection down. But when Teddy wouldn’t leave with them, they attacked him.

 Kl’rt jumped in and helped save Teddy, only to have the young man go back after him, with an annoyed Caster closer behind. Together the team subdued the Kree and jumped to the Kree ship to get away before the soldiers woke up.

Teddy took Kl’rt to an examination room with Billy following quickly behind.

“It’s not working,” said Teddy as Billy attempted to heal the Skrull from his injuries.

“Probably because I don’t want it to work,” snapped Billy. The Skrull lamented that he would heal in time, and expressed regret over the killing of Teddy’s mother. He then launched into a long rant about his story and how Captain Mar-Vell tried to save him.

“Ironic, is it not,” he finished, “Mar-Vell and the Scarlet Witch were once my prisoners and now I owe my life to their sons.”

“But I’m not the Scarlet Witch’’s sons.”

“OF course you are. You and your twin. The mage and the speedster.”

“I think we’d have known if the Scarlet Witch had kids or not…wouldn’t the Avengers have seen something in us?”

“According to Skrull intelligence she gave birth to two sons named Thomas and William.”

Billy stopped for a moment and looked at Teddy, “I’ll uh…be right back.” He turned and headed to the bridge. They had been told that they looked like them…and their powers were similar, though as far as Billy knew the Scarlet Witch only had the ability to manipulate probability not…whatever it was he could do.

He found Vision flying the ship and the others debating on what they should do next. He grabbed Tommy, whose nose had already healed perfectly, “The Scarlet Witch.” He said, “Is our Mom. According to the Super Skrull.”

“And the Super Skrull would have this information how?” asked Eli.

“Vision…” pressed Tommy.

“You do look just like her,” said Cassie growing back to normal size.

“Is it true?” asked Billy.

The Vision accessed the memory files, **“According to the Former Vision, the Scarlet Witch was so desperate to have children she unconsciously used her reality altering powers to create twin boys. Thomas and William. Less than a year later Mephisto, Lord of the Underworld claimed their souls as his own. But the twins had been so transformed by Wanda’s magic that they destroyed him. According to the information here, afterward the twins were gone, as if never existed. Along with Wanda’s memory of them.”** Following the Vision’s speech were several projected images of the twins as newborns, and of Dr. Strange.

“But clearly we’re real,” said Tommy, “And…alive.”

“And I thought time travel was a headache,” said Billy, “So that’s it?”

**“Recently when grief-stricken, the Scarlet Witch lost control of her powers, inadvertently killing Ant-Man, Hawkeye, and the Former Vision.”**

“She took out the Avengers, but where did she go?” asked Tommy.

**“Current location not in database.” explained the Vision.**

“You could always ask Dr. Strange,” said Kate, “According to this he delivered you, right?”

“And his house is supposedly super protected by magic and what not. It would be a great place to hide.” Said Billy.

“Set a course,” said Eli as the Skrulls began firing upon the Kree ship.

Teddy flew out quickly to try to reason with them and Billy flew out after him, but was grabbed quickly by his twin, “What the hell are you thinking?” asked Tommy, “This is crazy? Don’t go out there.”

“But Teddy…”

“Can handle himself,” said Tommy, “We need you to keep this spaceship from crashing.” Billy looked over at Vision who seemed to have steadied himself. He bit his lip.

“I have to go.” Said Billy and flew out, leaving his brother surprised. Shortly after it was a war and Eli got shot and taken to the hospital. After a grueling battle, everyone rendezvoused at the Hospital to check on Eli, who was already on his way to recovery.

Kate’s sassy retort was matched by glares from the twins at the high almighty spangly man.

“Billy, Tommy, something the matter?” asked Steve.

“Yeah, there is.” Said the twins.

“Super Skrull told us the Scarlet Witch is our mom, Vision confirmed it. Did you know?” asked Billy.

Jessica looked at Steve, who sighed heavily, “I guessed.”

“And you didn’t tell us? We practically asked you and you said nothing.” Snapped Tommy angrily.

“I wasn’t sure.”

“Not like it’s not obvious,” said Kate.

“Explains your powers,” said Teddy.

“Wanda’s kids weren’t real.” Tried Steve.

“Standing right here.” called the twins.

“Hold it,” said Jessica before things escalated quickly. “We didn’t know for sure. I only confirmed it a few weeks ago myself. Let’s just go to Doctor Strange and figure this out. He can set everything straight.”

“M…maybe I should uh...” began Teddy “I should probably go…there’s um…”

Billy grabbed Teddy’s hand, “Maybe Dr. Strange can wait.”

“No, no, you go. I’ll uh…”

“You go to Strange’s,” said Jessica, “And I’ll go with Teddy.”

“Us too,” said Kate pointing to her and Cassie, “We’ll be here for Teddy.”  
Billy hugged Teddy tightly before he and Tommy turned to Steve.

Captain America lowered his gaze, “Alright, fine.” Steve gave them the coordinates of what he knew was Strange’s hideout. As per usual when they arrived the house was nothing special and it was only through Steve being Steve that they entered the sacred realm of the Sorcerer Supreme.

It was Wong who met them at the door and allowed them entry into the Santorum.

“How may I assist you Captain?” he asked.

“May we speak to Dr .Strange, please?”

“Of course.” Said Wong and vanished down a long hallway before Strange appeared.

“What can I do for...” Strange stopped and stared at the twins in front of him, “My, my, that is peculiar.” He waved a hand over the boys, “Unusual.” He motioned for them to follow them, “William, Thomas, it has been a long time.”

“So you do know us,” said Billy, “A…are we really…”

“The magical signature within both of you are strong, only a magic wielder would be able to pick up on it.” They moved to a beautiful mahogany dining table, circular in shape, covered by a silk cloth, with tea appearing on top.

“C…can you tell us…about her.” Asked Tommy.

“Oh indeed I can.” He served them tea as he spoke, “Your mother loved you both very much, as did your father, the former Vision. He was overjoyed at your birth…although, one of you was a surprise.”

“Which one?” asked the boys,  

“Thomas was born first, and we thought that would be it.”

“HA!” said Tommy, “Told ya, I’m older.” He ruffled his brother’s hair.

“Less than a minute later, out of the blue, comes William, unbelievably so since neither medical technology nor either of our magic could detect you.”

“I had powers from the womb?” asked Billy.

“Not quite. But your own magical potential shielded you…at least that is my theory.”

“And we have a psychic block on us that prevents people like Emma Frost from entering our minds if we don’t want them to.”

“The X-men couldn’t detect us until we made an overly large display of our powers.”

Strange nodded, “While I was not the one who placed the block on you, I can tell you who did. Her name was Agatha Harkness and perhaps it was a present for your mother to protect you against those who would wish you harm, I do not know for sure. What I can tell you though is that both your parents loved you very much. Wanda and Vision were both crushed by the idea that you two were lost.”

“But the Vision had to have found us somehow…right?” asked Tommy, “How else did we end up as part of the failsafe?”

Steve thought about that. “The Vision likely put in your data at birth and since you two didn’t die, the program was able to keep track of you based on um…something…Stark’s usually the tech guy.”

“I guess the only thing that we can do is find her,” said Billy.

“No,” said Steve flatly.

“Why not?”

Steve sighed, “Look boys, I understand she’s your mom and you want answers. But your mother…she’s…gone no one knows where and she isn’t exactly in her right mind. She could hurt you. Seriously hurt you. For now I’m putting my foot down. Be children, enjoy being young and carefree.”

“Let’s see…our friend is in the hospital, other just lost his mother and we just fought two invading armies….oh yeah, super carefree.” Added Tommy, his blood boiling. “Let’s go.”

The twins stood up despite Steve’s protests to get their attention. As they existed the sanctum Billy pulled his phone out and texted Teddy while Tommy grumbled.

“Listen,” said the older twin, and boy did it feel good to know that for sure, “You go be with Teddy and I’m going to go to the X-Mansion and talk to Kitty and Kurt.”

“You think they’ll tell you something different?”

“No,” admitted Tommy, “But at least they won’t sugarcoat it.” The twins split up with Billy teleporting  to Teddy’s apartment while Tommy arrived back at the X-mansion. Zooming past student and faculty alike, Tommy found Kitty in the control room with Emma Frost in the danger room.

Sneakily, he vibrated into the room itself and set off a bunch of small, calculated explosions to get the attention of the “headmistress.”

“Thomas,” noted Emma, her anger growing, “What are you doing?”

“When were you going to tell us that Wanda Maximoff was our mother?” he demanded coming to a halt. Kitty phased through the window of the control room and landed on the danger room floor.

“It wasn’t your business.”

“Uh…our mom…totally our business.”

“Tommy…” began Kitty, wincing as he turned his scorned gaze to her.

“And you. We trusted you. Confided in you and you kept this from us? We look just like them and we should have guessed. But we never thought that heroes would abandon their children, or that other heroes would work to keep us in the dark.”

“Where’s Billy, Tommy?”

“Helping his boyfriend whose mom just died. Now somebody answer me.”

“Tommy. I’m sorry,” said Kitty, placing a hand on his shoulder, “Emma glared us into submission.”

“Yes and I don’t regret it.” The speedster glared daggers of 1000 deaths, “I don’t. I’m sorry that your fragile teenage feelings are hurt, but the fact remains that it was for your own safety.”

“Right…my safety…or a “carefree childhood.” You know what I’ve learned so far? Adults are stupid. I mean did you guys think that maybe if you’d just been straight with us, we would have possibly listened to your advice.”

Kitty’s face twisted into her customary, she was right all along expression.

“You’re children.”

“So what? At our age Captain America was trying to enlist in the US army? Kitty was already a member of the X-men and Spider-Man was already a hero on the streets. What exactly makes us different from Spider-Man, and Kitty and Captain America? That we’re teenagers now, or that our powers are slightly crazier?”

“What exactly do you want me to say?” asked Emma, her expression like her diamond form, unyielding, emotionless.

“An apology would be great, but I know having a heart isn’t your style.”

“Come on Tommy, let’s go talk to Hank, get you a fresh supply of his protein bars and have some tea.” Pushed Kitty. She threw her “I told you so” look Emma’s way and they headed out of the room. Emma’s cape twisted as she turned away and ordered the program to restart, “I’m so sorry Tommy. I tried to tell you, but they made me promise I wouldn’t say anything and then when you came to the mansion…”

“You tried to get us to figure it out ourselves,” said Tommy almost surprised he didn’t catch on sooner.

One week later things were still a little hazy with the Young Avengers, as everyone arrived at the statuary garden to pay tribute to a fallen hero. Billy put up a statue of Captain Mar-Vell as Jessica handed Kate her bow and codename selected by Captain America before pulling Teddy aside.

“I heard from Billy that the Kaplans offered to take you in.” said Jessica.

“Y…yeah and I got an offer from the X-men to become an honorary mutant…since I guess being a hybrid alien with two different species worth of superpowers kind of qualifies.” He said with a laugh, “Right now the Kaplans said I can stay as long as I want…but I don’t really want to.” Teddy looked on as Billy made a statue for Cassie of her father, “I love Billy. But they already have four kids. Adding me in just creates a whole set of new problems.”

Jessica bit her lip, “So instead of leaving school and moving to Westchester…what if…and you don’t have to if you don’t want to. But what if you moved in with Luke and me? I mean I can’t promise I’ll be a good parent, or peace and calm, but I can promise that we’ll support you and keep a roof over your heads and love you and—” Jessica was cut off by a pair of gentle arms engulfing her, sweet arms carefully pulled her into a warm hug. “Just be warned…I suck at this parenting thing.”

Teddy smirked, releasing her, “I think I’ll be the judge of that.”

“And I’m going to have a baby soon and she’ll be crying and…”

“I’ll train as lead Baby Sitter!” he saluted.

“You don’t have to do that. Just…be yourself and maybe get into a good college…right that’s what parents want?”

Teddy laughed, “That’s right.” He grabbed the urn which contained his mother’s ashes, “If it weren’t for me she’d still be alive.”

Billy wrapped an arm around him, “Teddy, your mom died protecting the one person she loved more than anything else in the universe. She was a hero. Just like her son.” Tears were falling all their faces.

“I’m sorry mom.” Said Teddy moving away from everyone and releasing the ashes, “I love you.”

“So what happens now?” asked Jessica more out of curiosity beyond Teddy moving in.

“Now we start looking for Billy and Tommy’s mom.”

Her maternal instincts kicked in, “Are you sure you want to do that?”

“Tommy already got that lecture from Emma Frost,” said Billy.

“She’s right,” cut in Cassie, “She murdered my dad, Hawkeye and the Vision, her own husband.”

“That’s because she thought Tommy and I were destroyed…and never real…”

“Where is Tommy?” asked Kate.

“Does anyone else hear that?” asked Eli utilizing his newly acquired super hearing. A few moments later an explosion rang out in the distance and Speed.

“It wasn’t my fault.”

“Tommy what did you blow up?”

“The United Nations building. You can thank me after we defeat the zodiac and you put the UN back together.”

“The Zodiac?”

“A guy with crab hands, a giant bull, two really hot female twins, they’re holding what’s left of the building hostage.” Together they races to take on a new villain and the next step of their journey.

The Avengers meanwhile had a much bigger problem to deal with.


	18. House of M: The Beginning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I made it to the House of M, things are only going to get freakier from here. Also please comment.

The Twins Meet All the Avengers

 

            The room felt like a herd of elephants had invaded it as more and more people arrived to the meeting. Most of the current and former Avengers were already present, Captain America, Luke Cage, Spider-Man, Wasp, and Yellow Jacket, She-Hulk, Sentry, and oddly enough, Charles Xavier and Dr. Strange. A sight to be seen for sure as they were joined by Ms. Marvel, Falcon and Wonder Man.

“What’s this about?” asked Carol.

“Don’t worry, we’ll explain as soon as everyone gets here.”

“Who’s everyone?” asked Simon shaking hands with Steve.

“Give them a minute,” said Tony, as he entered the room, clad, for some reason in his armor, “Jarvis just informed me they landed.”

Kitty had a bad feeling when she woke up at morning. Something in her just didn’t want to calm down and it bugged her.  Then Wolverine arrived and told them they had been asked to come to the new Avengers tower. Something just wasn’t right. She didn’t hear what Scott and Logan were talking about, all she saw was an old mentor in a wheelchair.

“Professor,” said Kitty and ran to hug him.

“Kitty.”

“I hated how things ended between us,”

“Yes,” admitted Xavier over Scott’s lamenting at what had occurred months before, “Well obviously something important has come up.”

“What are you doing here?”

Scott turned to Emma and a moment later Charles Xavier dropped the bombshell, “We need to decide the fate of Wanda Maximoff.” The Pizza arrived a second later.

“Oh it’s a lot more complicated than that,” said Captain America, once everyone was eating their pizza, “There is another problem.”

“What?”

“Her children.” Said Kitty. Stephen nodded.

“But…they weren’t real,” said Janet, “They were magical constructs and the magic was sucked back into….” She trailed off.

“Twin boys,” continued Kitty, “You might know them as Caster and Speed of the Young Avengers.”

“Do they know?” asked Charles.

“They do,” said Stephen.

“Doesn’t change anything,” said Emma, “She needs to be put down.” That statement caused a lot of uproar from Spider-Man, Wonder-Man and Captain America.

“I won’t even entertain the thought.”

“Even though they just spent twenty minutes explaining that the girl’s out-to-lunch and the world is in every kind of danger because of her?” asked Wolverine the cheese seeping from his slice.

“There’s always a way.”

“Not always.”

“Always.”

“But can we kill someone’s mother?” asked Kitty, “That’s what no one is considering here. It’s not just about Wanda. It’s about the boys.”

“I never knew my parents,” said Logan.

“Yeah and you turned out great.” Kitty was not amused, “You have no right to take her form them.”

“If I am not mistaken,” put in Charles, “The boys are adopted by the Kaplans, they have parents, not to mention two younger siblings.”

“Still not a good enough reason,” said Spider-Man, “I grew up with…a guardian, much like the twins, and not knowing your parents, no matter how much you’re loved, it’s hard on a kid.”

Emma didn’t even twitch, “They’ll get over it. Charles, be honest…. can you help her?” She ignored Peters mumbling about how normal people can’t just get over things.

“If I could Emma I wouldn’t be here having this conversation.”

The queen of cold turned to the sorcerer in the room, “Dr. Strange is there anything in the Mystic arts that could help her?”

“I don’t know.” Kitty started to jump in Emma stopped her.

“Have you been able to help her thus far?”

“No.” Strange shook his head.

“Have you tried everything you possibly can?”

“At the moment,” admitted the mystic master, “yes. But I am still searching.”

“There, Strange is still working on it. It’s not over yet.”

More bickering ensued between the two teams’ current and former members. Do they kill her? Yes, no. Whose jurisdiction was she in? A dangerous mutant…the X-men. But she was also an Avenger…

Finally Carol spoke up, “Who here has met her children.”

The X-men raised their hands, Steve, Dr. Strange too. Even Stark, and a few others, “What can you tell us about them?”

“They are wonderful boys,” said Kitty, “They’re smart, Tommy looks just like Pietro and Billy.” She bit her lip.

“Has her powers,” added Emma.

“They’re good boys,” said Hank, “They did some training with us when we first discovered them.” Hank recounted what he knew of the circumstances of their birth and how they came to be with the X-men as well as their impressive control of their powers.

“Maybe…if she met them…I mean that can sometimes help right?” asked Janet.

“I second that,” said Carol, “Let’s bring the boys in.”

“Now hold on,” began Emma. But she was easily outvoted. Kitty pulled her cell phone out of her pocket.

The boys were doing homework in their new townhouse in a nice neighborhood just outside the city. Jeff was making dinner while Rebecca finished up some writing.

“Wait.” Said Tommy, “Bro, you realize that since the Scarlet Witch is our mom…that means…Magneto is our grandpa.”

Neither twin had thought about the concept up to that point. Having focused so much on their parents and the strange circumstances of their origins left little time to ponder their real lineage. Magneto was their grandfather.

“Cool,” said Billy with little emotion, “Now we’re the grandchildren of a mutant terrorist. Things can only go up from here.” Tommy laughed at the dryness in Billy’s voice as Rebecca came in.

“Sorry to interrupt, I know you need your privacy, but I wanted to ask you how Teddy’s doing?” asked Rebecca.

“He’s good. The last couple of weeks have been hard. But he says that Jessica’s been a really big help and he and Luke get along really well.” Said Billy. He noticed his phone ringing, “Hey Kitty…what….when? Uh…hold on” Tommy looked up from his Biology book, “—Mom, Tommy and I are…um…we have to go.”

“X-men business?” asked Rebecca.

“Avengers actually,” said Billy. Tommy was on his feet before Billy finished the sentence.

She hugged the boys, “Be careful and take care of each other. Do you know when you’ll be back?”

Billy shook his head and returned to his call, “We’ll be there in a few minutes.” It wasn’t until they existed the apartment and made their way down the street that Tommy finally got an answer to what was going on. “Kitty said we’re needed at Avengers tower.”

“For what?”

“Something that involves the X-men and the Avengers apparently,” said Billy and it clicked for both of them, “Mom!”

“It has to be,” said Tommy, “So…why aren’t we teleporting?”

“Kitty said to be discreet.”

“Can I run us there?”

“Want me to hurl all over your shoes…again?”

Tommy laughed, “You’ve gotten better with practice.”

“Either that or my stomach has officially given up on life.” Arriving at the tower was different than the mansion, for one there weren’t any rubble and the whole tower felt much colder and less inviting. Kitty was waiting at the door with Professor Xavier and Dr. Strange.

“Professor, long time no see,” said Tommy, “Where’ve you been?”  

“Genosha,” replied Xavier morbidly.

“What’s going on?” asked Billy.

“Good to see you again boys,” said Strange and Kitty hugged the boys like their lives depended on it.

“There’s…a situation,” said Kitty, “And no one would move forward until you got here.” They followed the three adults to a large elevator and up several floors to a meeting room, “It’s about your birth-mother.” All the Avengers were there and Tommy grabbed his brother’s hand if only to steady him from the oncoming fanboy reaction. Surprisingly the young twin remained cool and collected.

“You know where she is?”

“On Genosha,” explained Xavier, “As you know your….Wanda is a very powerful and dangerous mutant. After her psychotic breakdown her father, Magneto, your grandfather, took her to the island and asked me to come to his aid.”

“Magneto hoped that the Professor would be able to help her, help her mind,” explained Strange, “But it has become more difficult and she continues to lose her hold on reality.”

“And you think we can help?”

“No, we’re just humoring you before we vote to put her down,” said Logan.

“Logan!” snapped Steve, “This is not an option.”

“Hi,” said Janet, “I’m Janet, the Wasp…your mom was…is a friend and this is Carol.”

“Ms. Marvel!” the twins exclaimed.

“Right, and we…we wanted to meet you.” Said Carol, “Dr. Strange can they help Wanda?”

“It is worthy trying.” Admitted the Sorcerer Supreme.

“But isn’t Genosha uh….” Began Billy.

“What’s a better word for barren wasteland?” asked Tommy.

“She’s there, don’t worry about it,” said Logan.

“Well, nice to know Logan’s bedside manner hasn’t changed.”

“And worst comes to worse, Doctor Strange, Professor, can you protect us from Wanda?”

“Together we can.”

The ride was cold and the twins rode with the X-men if only because it had more seating available and Kitty was there while Wolverine chose to ride with the X-men. This provided a buffer zone between the boys and Logan.

Genosha was a barren wasteland of fallen rubble, towers in pieces, and darkness covering the whole of it like a black mark. Kitty twitched in her seat beside Tommy. “All I see when I see Genosha is….this is what the humans want to do to us.” She said it quietly to Hank more than anyone else, but the boys caught it.

They landed near the remains of what used to be Magneto’s central headquarters.

“Lead the way professor,” said Steve. But the look Charles gave him made him worry. Everyone rushed inside only to find Wanda gone, Magneto nowhere to be seen and an empty bed lay disturbed, with wrinkled sheets in an otherwise torn-apart room.

“Did Magneto take her?” asked Iron Man.

“She doesn’t appear to be on the island.” Explained Charles.

“This place is creepy,” muttered Tommy.

“Something doesn’t seem right, Professor—” But the professor had vanished. Between Emma and Doctor Strange they managed to find them in an old church.

“Wait,” said Cyclops before everyone left, “Not all of us can fly.”

“Oh that’s not a problem.” Said Billy. Blue energy appeared all around the non-flyers, excluding Tommy who would be only too happy to run and not sit on a slow-moving magic disc. The blue energy raised them up and everyone headed to the church.

“Why is there a church on an Island run by a Jewish guy?” asked Kitty.

“Are we sure it’s a church? Gothic architecture sure, but could have been a Syanagogue.” Said Tommy.

“Then again mutants come in all faiths. Kurt’s a pretty devoted Catholic, so maybe he wanted to build a church here.”

“Does it matter?” asked Cyclops getting annoyed.

“It does to us.” Replied Kitty bluntly.

“She’s in here.”   

“I am not detecting her magical signature.” Said Strange as everyone landed safely in front of the place of worship.

“Emma what are you reading?”

“Nothing on inferred,” reported Iron Man.

“Guys…listen, I have this Spider-Sense when there’s danger and it’s not going off so—” The doors creaked open and slowly everyone preceded inside.

A short moment later there was a flash of light and everything went white.

***

Light poured into the apartment on the Upper West side, causing blonde hair to bury themselves deeper underneath the blankets. But the small of pancakes was too strong. Blonde hair untangled from the sheets to release a girl, no older than fifteen, maybe fourteen, and groggily the figure shuffled out of her room towards the wonder smell.

Her father and step-mom, and oh how she liked the sound of that, were being adorable in the kitchen as her father threw pancakes on the plate and the PI sat drinking her first cup of the day.

“Morning Dad. Morning Jess.” Jessica Jones smirked from her newspaper and peaked up.

“Good morning Cassie,” greeted Jessica, “Sleep well?”

“Good morning peanut,” said Scott putting a plate of pancakes in front of Cassie as she sat down. He kissed her head. Jessica and Scott ran a consulting/PI firm, one of the best in New York. Living with her dad, in his world of mutants and super-sapiens was a wonderful feeling. Discovering she had powers, whether through mutations or an accident when she was a baby, allowed her to change size. The feeling it gave her was overwhelming and she hoped it would never leave. Likely, it was the same feeling that Jessica had every time she flew.

“Are you all packed to go to your mom’s?” asked Scott

She sighed pouring syrup onto her pancakes, “Do I have to?”

“One weekend a month. That was the deal and it won’t kill you.”

“It might.”

“Cassie!” said Jessica, “She’s your mom and she loves you.” Cassie nodded absent-mindedly.

In another part of town, a young man was happily enjoying a large breakfast of eggs and bacon courtesy of his father, who worked for the United Nations as a lead expert on all things outer-space related.

“Hey Dad will you meet the Kree delegation when it arrives next week?” asked Teddy.  

“I’m not sure,” admitted Mar-Vell, “And I want you to meet your brother…it’s just…Genis never understood why I chose to live quietly on earth with your mom.” She raised her coffee cup in acknowledgment of his righteous decision.

Teddy nodded, “But. I did get an exclusive invitation to the House of M Galla.” Teddy grinned.

“Maybe you can finally meet your pen pal from that comic book chat room.”

“Mom!” said Teddy, but the blush was evident.

“What?” she asked innocently hiding under her tea cup.

In the Bronx, with people with three eyes and green skin roamed or flew the streets, young boy with no powers to help him in the world slumped down to breakfast at his grandparents apartment.

“Why can’t we move to Wakanda?” asked Eli, “There’s tons of education opportunities and humans aren’t treated like crap.”

“Watch your mouth,” said Faith as the toaster went off, “Eli, we talked about this. Your grandfather’s health…”

“More reason for us to move,” pushed Eli, “Mom’s there already and they have medicine and technology that could help.”

“Eli, we’re too old to move.”

“Not really? I heard a 90 year old guy just immigrated to Israel. If he can do it, we can too.”

Faith Bradley looked at her grandson…maybe he had a point.

A young woman got out of a limousine in front of a large hotel, she thanked the driver and entered the opened door to the lobby, with a pixie-type mutant at the front desk. She walked right passed said desk, around the corner and took the stairs behind the door marked, “Staff Only.” It circled around like a long winding staircase beneath the historic New York hotel, leading to a basement storage room with an old vent that led towards the old tunnels.

A scooter stood waiting for her, completely in purple and she rode it for several miles finally arriving at the end, or beginning of a long abandoned subway line. She parked it at its usual spot and went up from an old tunnel leading up to a cellar, hidden behind a patch of wood and a poster of Mary Jane Watson. Upstairs the bar was serving drinks and the smell of booze and rotting food filled the air of Rosie’s Bar.

“He here?” asked the woman.

“Go right in Katie. He just got talkin’ to a token cop,” said Rosie and pointed to a separate door, far away from the noise of billiards and drunken fools. Kate grinned and headed for the door.


	19. House of M Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little glimpse into the Young Avengers and the House of M. The gang meets Kitty.

Billy awoke with a jolt from a terrible nightmare. They had gone to a desolate Genosha with Spider-Man and Iron Man and tons of other people he didn’t know…there was Agent Howlett and a guy who looked like Captain America. There was a white light. He clutched his blankets tights around him. So much death, and stress, and fear surrounding the group.  

             He looked around and saw his brother’s bed through the door they always left open between the two rooms. The speedster’s legs moved lightly as he turned over. Billy followed and slumber found him again all too quickly.

            As the sunlight peered into the bedroom Billy opened his eyes. The room had beautiful, metal walls, with colorful curtains raising the banisters and a large closet separating his room from his brother’s. His room was colorful with book shelves and a beautiful tower window that looked out onto the main entrance of the palace.

            “Tommy…. wake up,” Billy said, looking at the clock. They had over slept. When that failed to wake his brother. Billy magically threw cold water on to him.

            “Why the hell—” began Tommy jumping from the wet sheets, “That was totally uncalled for.”

            Before Billy could respond, a woman with short ginger hair, pixie cut wearing sand colored robes and metal armor ran in.

            “Prince William, Thomas, we heard a racket, are you alright?” Following her were two of the palace guards.

            “Um…” began Billy as Tommy moved to Billy’s part of the room.

            “Perfectly fine Sophia, William just has a horrible sense of humor.” Glared Tommy at his brother.

            “Well, you best be up, Ms. Wanda…your mother is waiting for you for breakfast.” She bowed and left the room.  

            “What the hell is wrong with you?” asked Tommy.

            “S…sorry…really…really bad dream.” Tommy sat down on Billy’s bed.

            “You okay? You haven’t had one of those since you were twelve.”

            “Not sure. I’m better now, I think.”

            They got dressed into simple button down and slacks, before joining their mother in the dining room.  

            “Morning mother,” the boys said and kissed her on either cheek, Billy sitting on her left and Tommy on her right.

            “Morning William, Morning Thomas,” she smiled sweetly at them, “Eat up, big day today.”

            “It is?” asked the twins Wanda chuckled.

            “Of course, there’s so much to do for your grandfather’s party.”

            “What party?” asked William.

            “The party in honor of the triumph of your Grandfather and the mutants, of course. Really, do you not pay attention in your lessons?”

            “Yes mother,” said William, “Who will be in attendance?”

            “So many people, Prince Namor, the Kings of Latveria and Wakanda, Queen Storm, Captain Mar-Vell…your aunt has the full guest list.”

            “We don’t have to stay for the whole thing do we?”

            “Of course not, just the opening remarks, then you and I will do what we usually do. What do you think? Movies?” asked Wanda as the twins were served their breakfast.

            “Sounds fun.” They ate quietly with the twins exchanging glances every now and again.

            “Oh, and please remember your lessons with Wolfsbane.”

            “Mom,” whined the twins.

            “No whining. One of you is going to be king someday, this is important. And if you do well, your Grandfather may take you on his trip to Australia.”

            “To see the guy who’s going to be in the Red Guard movie?” asked Tommy, “Pass.”

            Wanda chuckled as their younger cousin Luna arrived. With her was a mutant with pink hair, and pixie wings, not so subtly dubbed Pixie. She hadn’t been at the palace long, but Luna seemed to like her. Pixie bowed and let everyone know she would collect Luna for her lessons following breakfast.

            “Morning Luna,” said the boys as she sat down beside Wanda.

            “Where’s Auntie P?” asked Luna.

            “She’s seeing to some party details and your father is on a conference call with the United Nations.” 

            “Lunes,” said Tommy, “Want to ditch the party after dinner and watch movies with us?”

            Luna smiled digging into the pancakes that were brought in for her, “Sounds like fun. Any chance we can cut lessons short? Please Auntie Wanda.”

            Wanda looked between her children and her niece, “Well…if you all work diligently…I think we can end things at noon.  But only if everyone participates.” Everyone turned to the speedster.

            “What? Why is it always me? So I ditched lessons a couple of times.”

            “A week.” Added Luna.

            “Traitor.”

            “Come on Thomas, one of you is supposed to be the older one.”

            “Mentally or biologically?” said Billy finishing off his glass of orange juice. The others laughed.

            Pietro arrived a moment later and kissed his daughter on the head, getting his own, extremely large pile of pancakes, while Wanda continued to munch on a piece of toast and peach marmalade. What was better than sharing breakfast with family? For Wanda, there was nothing more important than this.

            Back in the underground of New York…now located in the abandoned Wilson Fisk tower, a bunch of Avengers, Heroes for Hire, one young avenger, a little girl, and Wolverine stood around just talking, while the Genoshan citizens were a buzz of excitement for the festivities, the Red Guard was all too busy.

            “How can we fight this?” asked Kate, “Oh God we have to find Eli, and Cassie, and Teddy…”

            “Relax kid,” said Wolverine, “Anybody see a phone book around here?” Connecticut. It had to be Connecticut. They were in Connecticut, teleported there by Cloak and wondering what on earth was going to happen to them next.

            “Who lives here?” asked Felicia.

            “A friend…I think.” Added Wolverine. Kate was on the phone with her contacts and tried to see if she knew anyone who could get her to Cassie. No such luck and for the first time the young archer came face to face with Emma Frost who stopped them only to yell at them. Most of it was an exchange with Wolverine but it was her words later on that caught her attention.

            “…That is it! We’re going to kill him! And his kids!”

            “And uh…what do you plan to do about his grandkids? Because killing people because someone took advantage of a mentally ill person is totally the way to solve everything. If you kill Magneto first Wanda will kill you, right?” asked Kate, “And if you kill Wanda first, the word we live in remains the same.”

            “Who the hell are you?” asked Emma.

            “I’m the cooler Hawkeye and I’m part of the Young Avengers. So I get you’re pissed lady. Get in line. But maybe have an actual plan?”

            “Kate, watch it.” Said Luke, holding the fainted Layla Miller.

            “Hey, if she’s planning on killing people that happen to be related to my friends, she can deal with me.” But Emma had long stopped listening and was focusing her attention on the young girl.

            “So who is this lady?” asked Kate.

            “Emma Frost. One of the leaders of the X-men,” explained Danny Rand.

            “Looks like she married Scott Summers. Cyclops.” Said Wolverine turning to Kate, “Have we met before?”

            “Yeah, during the Kree-Skrull battle two weeks ago. I was the one with the bow.”

            One by one, X-men after Avenger, after hero were reverted back. Memories piled on top of memories. Kitty remembered meeting Charles Xavier for the first time as well as being asked to join the Red Guard. Carol Danvers remembered being an Avengers and fighting in some Civil war for the mutant cause. After some coercing Cassie and Eli were added to the team, Cassie was gabbed on her way to her mom’s house and Eli was at the library. Teddy was grabbed as he was about to enter the United Nations building to meet his father for the transport to Genosha.  

            “Do you buy what Emma Frost is selling?” asked Eli, “Because I find this all just a little hard to swallow.”

            “You remember what the Vision said,” said Kate, “And according to Emma they have Charles Xavier who can read minds and what not…. wait…how did we get involved with this?”

            A woman phasing through the door grinned, “Probably through the twins. Professor Xavier knows the twins and they were with us when…when we went to Genosha. Hi I’m Kitty.”

            “Eli, that’s Kate and Cassie and Teddy. Tommy and Billy talk about you a lot.”

            “Yeah, you’re kind of like a big sister to them.” Said Teddy, “My…Dad had an invite, I was supposed to go with him. He hasn’t stopped calling. What do we do Kitty?” Kitty smiled fondly at them.

 Yet another unsuspecting explosion tore through the ceiling in the form of the SHIELD Red Guard. But they too were quickly awakened by Layla Miller. Kitty ran to check on Nightcrawler.

“Guys.” Said Ms. Marvel, “Hawkeye’s Gone.”

“I’m right here…” began Kate, “Oh you meant the other Hawkeye…sorry.”

“We don’t need him. He’s a liability.”

“So what’ the plan then?” asked Carol.

“Magneto. We go to him. He knows where Xavier is.”  

“And then what? Do we just ask the all mighty King Magnus if he wants to put the world back the way it was?” asked Eli.

“Right now we need to get all of us on a transport to Genosha. The rest we can figure out in route.”

“Uh…ve might be able to help vigh zat,” said Kurt looking between Mystique and Rogue.

A moment later everyone was sitting inside the plane headed for the helicarrier.

“This is so weird.” Said Teddy leaning his head back and closing his eyes, “Do you guys have this too? It’s like I can remember us becoming a team and I can also remember my Dad teaching me how to control my powers, helping me fly. It makes no sense.”

“Yup.” Said Cassie, “I remember living with my mom and my dad being a superhero, but I can also remember him fighting and winning custody of me and living with him and Jessica…oh, Teddy, Luke I’m so sorry.”

“Sorry about what?” asked Luke.

“In this world, Jessica is married to my dad. Scott Lang.”

Luke glared at Carol, “I blame you.” Though he did not elaborate as to why.

Back on Genosha, with guests arriving shortly, Magneto shuffled along to his office, to take a look at some last details before he retired for the party. Outside his office, he found his three grandchildren. Grand children had been a pleasant surprise all-around for the king, from his daughter bearing twin boys, to his brother’s one-night stand resulting in an incredible young lady. He couldn’t be more proud.

“What are you kids doing outside my office?” asked Magnus, in mock-annoyance.

“We wanted to say hi,” said Luna, “Billy said you weren’t in here so we were about to go.”

Magnus smiled and picked up Luna, “Not to worry,” said Magnus, “Let’s go in. There’s quite a few treasures in there.” The kids had been in his office before, looked through its relics. That was just his way of connecting to them. But the office was still a forbidding place, the place where all the world’s problems were being worked on. His old helmet lay in a glass case on his bookshelf. Not that he would ever need it again.

Treasures were sprawled throughout the large areas, one was a book, which stood out among the others, written by his old friend, Charles Xavier.

“So, care for a story before we must all scurry along and get ready for tonight’s festivities?”

“We’re not nine, grandpa…well just Luna.”

“I’m eleven.” Protested the shorter girl as Magneto set her down.

“Details,” dismissed Tommy.

Magneto sat down at his desk chair, while the children sat down on the couch, “Well I’m afraid I don’t have any juicy stories really.”

“Can you tell us about Charles Xavier?” asked Billy shyly, “He was your friend and helped you liberate Genosha, right?”

“A truly brilliant man, a dear friend.” Said Magnus and told stories of his adventures with Charles.

Back with the renegades, they were now on their way to Genosha via a SHIELD Helicarrier, with Scott Summers surprising everyone with a speech about the absence of restraint. The Young Avengers knew the world had to be turned back to normal, or whatever it was before this. But how could they do this? Were they supposed to beat Magneto to death until he did it? Hold her children hostage?

“So what’s the plan sparky?” asked Logan.

“Three teams.”

But can they put the world back? That was the question and what happens when they can’t.

“That’ll be a fun conversation,” said Teddy as his phone buzzed, “Okay who is GenoshaWizard1 and why does he keep messaging me…oh…” Kate and Cassie giggled, “It has to be Billy right?”

“Who else could it be?” asked Eli, “What’s it say?”

“He says he’s excited to meet me.” Scrolling back through the texts, “Oh man, I said I was coming to Genosha…”

“Even in this universe,” said Kate, “You two. I swear.”

“This could work to our advantage though,” piped up Kitty, “You can get the boys away from all the fighting. Of course, I’m still not sure why it’s our responsibility to put everything right.”

“Good point,” cut in Jessica Drew, “Who’s being hurt here exactly? Magneto got what he wanted, but then, so did we. Weren’t we happier here? I was… I think. And isn’t there an argument to be made that we deserved this?” Jessica Drew and Logan argued and her point had merit. This wasn’t a perfect world, of course neither was the one they left. This wasn’t’ going to be an easy decision for anyone.

“Okay?” asked Scott as Spider-Man excused himself from the room, “Everybody done? Good. Three teams.”


	20. House of M Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shit gets real...on the plus side the boys find their family.

Back on Genosha everyone got ready for the party. Magnus wore a formal coat, with medals and a sash signifying his great achievements and status. Pietro wore a jacket that mirrored this, with Luna in a beautiful pink dress, with a flower in her hair. Wanda in signature red, with jewels all over her. Lorna dressed in a mix of light blue and green colors on her ensemble. Billy and Tommy wore simple button downs and jackets with sashes showing their importance as part of the royal family, but remembering their status as children of the house.

“Who’s texting you?” asked Tommy, “Your pen pal?”

“Yeah. He says he wants to meet…t…tonight.”

“He’s in the country?” asked Tommy. Billy nodded, “I’m coming with you.”

“You are not.”

“I am too. You don’t know anything about him, he could be a skrull or something. We’ll just tell mom we’re going to bed and go down to meet him. The other option is telling her the truth. I mean she’s mom. Human mom. No powers, not a prejudiced bone in her body mom.” Pointed out Tommy.

“Tell her that I’m gay and meeting a pen pal I met on a comic book fan site?” asked Billy. Tommy nodded patting his brother.

“Don’t worry bro, whatever happens, I got your back. Did he say when or where he wants to meet?”

“No. Hopefully he’ll let me know soon.”

One by one the guests arrived from King Doom of Latveria, to Namor, and Queen Storm. After the introduction of the family, the children and Wanda were excused from the festivities and royal duties and went to the media room.

 They formed three teams. The first consisted of Emma, young Layla Miller, and Cloak, whose job was to look for Charles Xavier. The second was the largest group which served as a distraction and the primary battle front group. The final, and arguably the most important group consisted of Doctor Strange and the Young Avengers. Their task was the hardest, to find the twins, find Wanda and convince her and or Billy to put the world back. If that was even possible.

Doctor Strange teleported them inside the palace and they began search rooms.

 “So…uh…Billy and Tommy don’t exactly know us.” Said Kate, “How exactly do we convince them about everything?”

“Our charm?” asked Teddy.

“Well your charm?” added Cassie. She grew a few sizes to take down guards, while Teddy knocked out two more ahead.

“Do not worry children, everything will be alright,” said Doctor Strange as he flew ahead of them.

“Where are they?”

They followed down several hallways and awkward entrances before finding the right room.

“So what are we watching this time? The Spider-Man movie?” asked Wanda as the children all sat around the media room.

“Sure, Mary-Jane is hot.” Said Tommy. Billy kept staring at his phone in disappointment.

“Billy, what would you like to watch?” asked Luna.

“I don’t mind Spider-Man,” said Billy, his eyes not lifting from his phone.

The Young Avengers burst forward first, surprising everyone in the room Billy and Tommy automatically took positions around their mother and younger cousin.

“Billy wait.” Started Teddy.

“How do you know my name? Only my family calls me Billy.”

“Just hold on.” Said Kate, “We’re not here to hurt you. Everyone, let’s just calm down.”

“Surprise. I’m your pen pal?” tried Teddy weakly, “Well…I’m a little more than that, but it’s kind of confusing.”

“Yes, you just decided to crash a royal party cause you were in the neighborhood?” asked Tommy to Kate, “That’s why your teammate decided to lure out my brother? Because you and your pals wanted to invade the castle?”

“Tommy stop.” Begged Eli, “We’re here with Doctor Strange.”

“Aw, have you decided to join us Doctor? It’s been so long since we’ve seen you. I miss our talks.” Said Wanda patting her boys to relax.

“You remember me?”

“OF course, you were here at the birth of the boys. It seems so long ago. Look how far they’ve grown.” The twins moved closer to their mother.

“Look,” said Cassie, “All of this isn’t real. Your names are Billy and Tommy Kaplan. You are superheroes, part of the Young Avengers.”

“Move away from our mother, Doctor.” Pushed Billy. Wanda stood up and placed a hand on her son’s shoulder.

“It’s alright honey, he won’t hurt me.”

“Billy we don’t want to hurt you. But step aside.” Said Eli.

“I’d like to see you try.” His eyes glowed blue and the others backed away. Kate motioned for Doctor Strange.

“My apologies, young prince. But I am afraid there is little time for this.”

“Why not? We have all the time in the world?” said Wanda

“There’s a war going on outside.”

“Outside?” asked Wanda and the wall disintegrated in front of her and the boys exchanged shocked glanced. Their mother had powers?

“Mom.” Asked the twins as Luna gasped out “Aunt Wanda.”

Wanda started crying and the kids crowded around her, “No one should be fighting.”

“Who is fighting exactly?” asked Tommy, “I see Grandpa and Queen Storm and…is that Nightcrawler, why would he be fighting against us?”

“Pretty much everyone who isn’t us is out there. What’s this all about?” Added Billy.

Luna touched her Aunt and gasped, “Aunt Wanda? Why am I on Genosha?”

“What do you mean?” asked Tommy, “You were born here.”

“You!” she said to the twins, “You’re real.” She pocked them, as the Young Avengers stifled a chuckle.

“Of course we’re real. We’ve been real your entire life.” Said Billy.

“Can someone please tell us what is going on?” shouted Tommy.

“He said we could all be happy.” Whispered Wanda. Prodding questions from Doctor Strange caused a bubble to appear, showing it had been Pietro who got Wanda to change everything as the others approached Genosha. He had good intentions though.

The residual magical energy knocked Billy and Tommy into the land of aware. They were knocked away from Wanda and to the floor.

 “Remember us yet?” asked Kate.

“Your face is hard to forget beautiful,” flirted Tommy as she helped them up.

“We were pen pals?” Asked Billy incredulously as Teddy helped him up, “We are such dorks.”

“I guess we’ll end up together in any universe.” Grinned Teddy hugging Billy.

The reunion was short lived as the twins stared at Wanda, “Uh…Mom?”

“Emma are you listening?” asked Doctor Strange. The remainder of the people inside were forced into the outer reaches of the battle field. Eli ran to help Sam Wilson, and Cassie ran to give Spider-Man a hand in the big fight.

“My boys. So grown up,” said Wanda and before anything else could be said an arrow flew and stabbed Wanda. The twins turned to Kate who held her hands up in defense, showing her bow had long been tucked away inside her quiver.

Magneto was awoken a moment later and the fighting increased and the rest of the Young Avengers joined the fight to keep everyone away from Wanda.

“Clint Barton,” spewed Wanda, as the twins helped her up, “Why did you do that?” He advanced to Wanda and the twins were ready to protect her. Clint drew his bow again as Billy readied himself. He yelled at Wanda, she tried to explain and then…well…

“You don’t even know what you’ve done!” Clint shouted a moment later he vanished from existence.  

“I…I didn’t mean to,” Begged Wanda, “He was so mad at me…and the children. I had to protect the children. I had to.”

“It’s okay,” said Tommy, “You can put it back. We can put it all back.”

“I…I can’t control any of it.” Shouted Wanda.

The fighting increased, “We got to get out of here.” said Eli, after tossing someone, “The Red guard is overwhelming us. If anybody is going to do anything it has to be now.”  

“I can try. But that’s a lot of people and…I’ve never done anything so big.” Tried Billy.

“You can do it.” Said Tommy grabbing his hand. Teddy grabbed his other hand.

Billy pushed his energy into calming everyone down. His efforts managed to push everyone to the ground, but not Magneto who advanced on his son.

“What have you done in my name?!” screamed the king. Magneto pushed a piece of metal at his son.

 “Tommy!” called Eli, “Teddy! You have to go. Cassie, Kate and I will try to hold off the X-men and Avengers.”

“Fight Magneto?”

“Somebody has to put a stop to this, if the Avengers won’t. We will.” Teddy and Tommy took off, but Billy was far ahead of them. He used his powers and in the final moment as a giant metal wall headed towards Pietro, Billy teleported him out.

“BROTHER!” Wanda screamed and ran to him.

“He’s okay,” said Billy, “He’s knocked out, but he’s okay.”

“We’re freaks, we’re monsters, deprived of love and family….” She looked up, her mind aware of everything now. “You!” she said to him and Tommy and Teddy appeared by Billy’s side, “And you…you’re…. you’re…” Pietro lay with his head on his sister’s lap, and Luna ran over to check on him.

“Alive…real? Yeah!” Said Tommy, “When Mephisto was destroyed our bodies were set fee. We ended up in New York…. we were adopted.” Billy placed a shield around them, to protect them from the battle.

“Adopted.” She repeated as Pietro awoke and looked at his daughter and nephews.

“We didn’t know you were our Mom until a week ago.”

“A…are you happy?”

 “We are,” said Billy sitting down beside her, “We have a great family, great friends, we’re even superheroes.”

 “We’re super-fast and super magical.” Tommy paused, “We…we’re glad we met you and we want to get to know you but…”

 “You have to put the world back.”

 “I…I don’t know if I can.”

 “We can do it.” Said Billy.

 “Together.”

 “As a family.” Said Magneto.

 “Please Aunt Wanda.”

 “Wanda,” begged Lorna.

Three generations of one family standing side by side, with a knocked out Pietro. With the combined power of two magic users and a boost of energy from the magnetic force, of Luna, and of Tommy supporting their family Wanda Maximoff put the world back the way it was.             

 


	21. Post-M World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone's not okay and the twins tell their parents what happened.

Morning burst into the bedroom of Billy and Tommy’s much larger, but still shared room. It felt like any other morning, with Dad making eggs and Mom tapping softly on the door to let them know breakfast would be ready soon.

            Slowly the twins opened their eyes, to take in their surroundings, same old posters, same old action figures and stacks of comics. It all came flooding back quickly and they covered their mouths from screaming and cuddled together on Tommy’s bed, doing everything they could not to cry. What had happened? There had been a life with a mom and an aunt and uncle, a cousin, a grandfather and a life free of fear. They had met them, their real family and just like that, in the blink of an eye, a wave of a hand, they were gone.

            Luke Cage’s first stop was the room of his new ward, Teddy who was no longer asleep, just staring at the ceiling above his bed.

            “So…that happened,” said Luke.

            “Does Jessica know?” asked Teddy sitting up.

            “I don’t think so. I’m heading to the meeting room to see the others.” Teddy’s phone buzzed a moment later with a frantic text from Billy.

            Slowly one by one the Avengers arrived at the mansion, followed behind shortly only by the X-men. Sprawled around the meeting room.

            “Who called this meeting?” asked Stark, “Why are the X-men here?”

            “It’s a long story Stark,” said Luke, “We’ll fill you in later.”

            “So what do we do?” Asked Ms. Marvel.

            “What is there to do?” sked Luke, “The world is back the way it was. No harm…to the world anyway.” He said glancing over at Peter Parkerwho who wasn’t quite himself.

            “And what do we do to keep it from happening again?” asked Peter.

            “Simple,” said Emma, “The twin, Caster. Send him to the Xavier school or make him a ward so we can keep an eye on him.”

            “Excuse me?” asked Kitty, “Did you lose your brain? You have no right to force him to come with us, or take him away from his parents. His parents who adopted him, legally. He hasn’t done anything wrong.”

            “Yet.”

            “This is insane,” said Sam, “We were just on Genosha and now we’re….”

            “Genosha?” asked Stark.

            “Yet?” demanded Kitty her voice rising, “We could all do something dangerous and scary. You could decide screw humanity and go manipulate the President of the United States. You can control anyone’s mind.”

            “But I can’t warp reality?”

            “Oh…so you’re just targeting him because of his powers…that makes it okay.”

            “He’s a potential danger.”

            “We’re all potential dangers. You have to guide him.” Snapped Kitty, “If we try to control him you’ll only make things worse.”

            “And everything’s okay now right?” asked Spider-Woman.  

            A struggling, weak Doctor Strange entered the room, “Not quite.” He said.

            “It seemed that only those of us who were woken up by Layla and protected by my magic remember the events, though I am not sure about the Young Avengers.

            “Teddy remembers it. That means the other kids do too.” Said Luke, “and so do the twins.”

            “Doctor Strange, can you find Wanda?” asked Captain America.

            “No, her magical signature does not appear to be anywhere. It is as if…as if she does not exist.” Doctor Strange looked like he had been through hell, “My duties as master of the mystic arts are simple. Protect the world from things like this. I failed.”

            “But the world is fine now, right?” asked She-Hulk.

            “It seems that whatever Wanda did has been completely undone,” said Hank McCoy, “No residual problems and the school is operating in tip top shape. Only we remember what has happened.”

            “Which brings us back to the original question. How do we keep this shit from happening again?” Demanded Spider-Man, “Doctor Strange. You have my permission to wipe my memory of this event.” Doctor Strange refused, “I said TAKE IT OUT!” Captain America put a hand on his shoulder and Spider-Man left the room.

            “Do we tell the press?”

            “That a mentally ill mutant changed the entire world? One, who will believe us? And two, that’s a death sentence to the mutant population.” Said Cyclops.

            “Caster managed to help Wanda fix the world. He’s powerful…and dangerous.” Said Carol.

            “Forgive me, Ms. Marvel, but arhent ve all dangerous?” asked Nightcrawler, “I agree wiz Katichen. Isolating ze kinder vould only make zem rebel more. It iz a sure vey to guarantee zey do something rechless.”

            “Not to mention that, again, all of us are dangerous. I could walk through the walls of the most secure bank; Emma you could bend the president to your will. But we don’t do that because we know right from wrong. Billy knows the difference between right and wrong too.”

            “So what is your solution then?” demanded Emma getting irritated by every new word spewed.

            “We have no reason to worry.” Said Kitty, “Billy is in a loving home, with a loving family, with three brothers, a boyfriend. He has stability and peace of mind. That’s something Wand and Pietro didn’t have. At least not until they joined the Avengers.”

            “You can’t be suggesting…” began Emma.

            “Give the kids what they asked you for in the first place,” grinned Kitty looking at the Avengers in the room, “Trust them. Train them.”

            “We can’t train young heroes.”

            “Why not?”

            “Their parents…” began Stark.

            “Well...one of Teddy’s legal guardians is in this room and Rebecca won’t have any problems with it. She already knows the twins are superheroes.”

            “Faith knows about Eli.”

            “Whatever you decide, know that they won’t leave their friends to join the X-men.”

            “And don’t you dare hurt them.” Said Luke.

            “Doctor Strange is clearly out of commission,” said Steve, “We need to call the kids in to at least locate Wanda so we may protect her.”

            The twins managed to get out of the house after a healthy breakfast that Dad insisted on and met up in central park with the other Young Avengers. The park was riddled with people, like it always was, between the locals running and tourists snapping pictures and asking for directions.

            The group snuck into the mansion and sat around the statuary garden, away from city noise and luring tourists.

            “So…that happened right?” asked Cassie, her knees up to her chest, “My dad being alive, me living with my dad.”

            “World wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.” Said Eli.

            “Neither is this one.” Said Teddy.

            “So what was it like for you guys?” asked Billy.

            “I was trying to move to Wakanda.”

            “I was living with my dad and step-mom Jessica Jones.”

            “I was in the sapien resistance,” said Kate.

            “I was living with my mom and dad,” said Teddy quietly, “The fake memories, they’re still there.”

            “They’ll fade with time, I hope!” said Tommy, “Wait! What do you think happened to Magneto, or Lorna or Luna or Pietro?”

            “Luna’s probably back on the Moon.” Said Billy staring at the sky, “Better question is where Wanda is.”

            “Well, you changed the world back,” said Teddy.

            Eli was not amused, “How long before they try to take Billy away, to keep him from ending up like Wanda?”

            “I bet they’re talking about it now,” said Tommy, “But we’re not going to let them take him.”

            “Of course not,” said Kate.

            A few minutes, as the sun was shining brightly, shade covered them, the Avengers and the X-men descended upon them.

            “Did you guys set off the alarm?”

            “No,” said Eli, “This isn’t our first run at Avengers Mansion.”

            They followed everyone inside and saw Hawkeye’s costume, pinned by Arrows and the obituary written about Clint.

            “What does that mean?” asked Carol, “What does it mean?”

            “Something tells me we’ll find out,” said Steve. “Alright since everyone is here. We might as well get to it.”

“Billy can you uh…fix the meeting room, please?” asked Kitty.

            Billy shrugged and his blue energy filled the room turning a broken room, with debris everywhere into a slick, old fashioned meeting room, reflecting the feel of the original mansion. A few people exchanged uneasy glances.

            Everyone sat down around a mahogany table, with plenty of chairs to go around between the Avengers, the X-men, and the Young Avengers.

            “So…Billy, we were wondering if…”

            “…You would use your powers to locate the Scarlet Witch.”

            “No!” said the twins instantly.

            “Why not?” asked She-Hulk.

            “Because…honestly,” said Tommy.

            “We don’t trust you.” Replied the twins.

            “Except for a select few of you, that is.” They smiled to Kitty and Kurt and Luke, a few others.

            “It’s nothing personal,” admitted Billy, “But this whole thing could have been avoided if you didn’t have a secret meeting to talk about killing the Scarlet Witch.”        

            “That’s what set this whole thing off. Not Magneto, not Wanda going crazy, no, it was a scared brother who wanted to keep his sister safe. You threatened Pietro’s family, he had other options and he chose poorly, but it wasn’t done out of malice.” Added Tommy.

            “So no, we’re not going to find our mother for you, nor are we going to look for her so you can tag along, or keep an eye on us,” said Billy.

            “She’s killed people.” Said Cyclops.

            “That’s your big argument?” asked Tommy, “No offense, but uh, Wolverine’s killed a ton of people and he got inducted as an Avenger.”

            The others laughed in the background.

            Kitty walked over and hugged the twins tightly, “You two should…uh…probably talk to your parents, huh?”

            The twins nodded. They found their birth family…granted the circumstances were a little odd, even for them. But they had to. They had to tell the family.

            “You guys head on home,” said Kate, “We’re going to head to HQ.”

            “We should probably check on the Vision too and fill him in on everything.” Said Cassie.

            “Head on home.”

            “We’re not done here yet.” Snapped Emma.

            “Oh we are done,” said Luke, “You boys go on.”

            When they returned home the younger Kaplan boys were watching Saturday morning cartoons. The entire house was quiet, Jeff was reading and Rebecca was working on a proposal for a research grant.

            The twins found them, quietly working in their shared office with Rebecca standing up every few minutes to grab a book for reference. When the twins came in their parents stood up, seeing the look on their faces.

            “Boys, what is it?” asked Jeff.

            “C…can we talk to you. It’s important.”

            “Of course you can.” Said Rebecca and motioned for them to sit down on the couch, “What is it? Are you okay? Did something happen?”

            “We…we don’t know how to say this,” said Tommy, biting his lip. “But we…

            “We found our birth parents.” Said the twins, not looking at Jeff or Rebecca.

            “Which is to say we found out who they were about three weeks ago and then…well…we met some…we have a mom and…and an uncle…”

            “And an Aunt and a cute younger cousin and a Grandfather.” Finished Tommy.

            “H…how did you find them?” asked Rebecca her voice breaking just a little bit, “Who are they?”

            “Do you know Magneto?” asked Billy.

            “The mutant terrorist?”

            “I think he’s a former mutant terrorist actually.” Supplied Tommy, “But yeah. He’s our grandfather and as it turns out…”

            “The Scarlet Witch is our mom.”

            “…And where is your mother right now?” asked Jeff and thus Billy and Tommy told the story of the World of M and everything that had occurred in the last couple of days from their perspective. The changed world, the family and everything that they did.

            “So you have two sets of memories?”

            “Yeah, though some of it’s a little hazy,” Said Tommy, “But we can tell you about the time we…or I guess not really we, took our cousin Luna to this little pond at the palace.”

            “And she thought it was really gross and then somehow convinced us to play tea party with her…in dresses. We found out about her mutant ability that day.”

            Jeff leaned back in his chair, dropping his glasses on the desk, “So…that’s um…where are all your family members now?”

            “We don’t know.” Said Tommy, “But Billy could probably find them.”

            “Magneto’s back on Genosha,” said Billy reading a text, “Teddy just send me this, the X-men flew off to Genosha to see Magneto.”

            “Does Kitty know Magneto?” asked Rebecca.

            “I think so,” said Billy.

            “Probably.” Said Tommy, “Weren’t he and Professor X friends or something?”

            “Has anyone actually see Professor Xavier since the world changed back?” asked Billy. Tommy shrugged.

            “But yeah Kitty probably knows him. They’re both Jewish and both now fight for the same cause…sort of…”

            “In that case,” said Rebecca, “I will contact Kitty and we will have both of them over for dinner.”

            “What?” asked the twins.

            “It’ll be just us, the boys too. We could have them over for a nice Shabbat dinner. It’ll be perfect. Jeff, please make sure you have next Friday night off.”

            “Mom.”

            “Nope boys, sorry,” added Jeff, “She’s made up her mind.”

            That night the boys ended up in the clubhouse, which was now complete with living quarters and a kitchen and various training equipment, as well as a common area and meeting room.

            “So wait,” said Eli, “Your mom wants to invite Magneto to dinner?”

            “Yup.” Said Tommy twisting in the wheelie chair, while Billy leaned his head on Teddy’s shoulder over on the couch.

            “Can you video tape that?” asked Teddy, “I mean Magneto…at dinner…with two mutants and four humans.”

            “Three mutants,” said Billy, “Kitty’s coming too. She’s an honorary Kaplan.”

            “Mom and Kitty kind of bonded while we did training and she’s the only Jewish mutant at the school. So she’s basically been adopted.”

            Dinner with Magneto? What would that even look like?”

             


	22. Dinner Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Erik's invited to dinner? Will he attend? Can Kitty convince him?

            The wasteland he called home was a splash of despair, regret and failure for the master of magnetism. Still, he had carved a hovel for himself, in what used to be a prosperous land for mutants everywhere. But he couldn’t stay here anymore. It was just a reminder of all that he had lost. He would leave the island he once ruled and perhaps take the offer that had been extended to him by someone long ago.

            The world of M had ended a week ago, and yet, the memories remained.

            A plane landed in the distance and he flew to see who would dare to set foot on his kingdom. It was a small plane, big enough for maybe two people. A young lady jumped out and walked over to the Master of Magnetism with a huge, smirky, bemused, she knew something type of grin that always annoyed him.

            “What can I do for you Katherine?”

            “Why don’t you have a cell phone? Or email? Some way to reach you quickly?”

            “There is something to be said for living the simple life.”

            Kitty groaned, “This is the twenty-first century Erik. And don’t call me Katherine.”

            “What brings you to the island?”

            “This,” Kitty pulled out her phone and showed him the email she got from Rebecca Kaplan.

            “Who is Rebecca Kaplan and why does she want me over for Shabbat dinner?”

            “Rebecca is the adopted mother of your grandchildren, Erik,” said Kitty, “And she invited us both for Shabbat dinner.”

            “The boys are real!” said Magneto, he remembered them in the world of M, but to think they had been out there all this time. They hadn’t vanished with the ending of Wanda’s spell. They existed. “And they were raised Jewish?”

            “Billy more than Tommy since they were separated and didn’t find each other until they were thirteen, but yeah.”

            “Are they…um…” he didn’t want to ask, but he felt like he was almost obligated to given his position over the years.

            “That’s how I met them actually. Now come on. You can come to the mansion and relax, recuperate, the students will love you.” Erik did not share her enthusiasm, “Oh don’t worry the boys will love you too.”

            “My own children don’t like me.”

            Kitty nodded, “Yeah, but children and grandchildren are totally different. Come on, it’ll be great and as long as you don’t make snide comments about humans or harming her children, Rebecca Kaplan will love you.”

            “How do you know that?”

            “Because I know Rebecca Kaplan.”

            “Oh do you?”

            “Yes. I do. I am at their house a lot. It’s easier to go to Manhattan from Westchester than Chicago. Hanukkah, Passover, I’m there a lot. Trust me. Rebecca Kaplan is probably the single nicest, most understanding human being you will ever meet.”

            Magneto sighed, “What would I even wear?”

            “Clothes. Slacks and a button down? It’s Shabbat dinner, not dinner with the president…not that the president would ever invite you over.”

            “Your humor is astounding.” Said Magneto dryly.

            “Time is fleeting,” repeated Kitty back, “Get on the plane Erik.”

            “Fine, fine. May, I at least collect my things before you kidnap me?”

            “It’s not kidnapping. We have dinner in a week and you need to shower, shave and remember how to be an adult.”

            Magneto was not amused but knew better than to argue with the small young woman. “Have you heard from Lorna?” asked Kitty.

            “Yes, she is not speaking to me, but broke this vow just long enough to inform me she was safe on vacation in Tuscany trying to find herself away from me.”

            “And you didn’t think to go after her?”

            “It’s not my place.” They walked towards his living quarters and he quickly packed some clothes and several other items he had with him. It wasn’t much and he was not expecting to return. They boarded the plane and he left Genosha with a heavy heart, “I don’t think this dinner is a good idea.”

            “This dinner was Rebecca’s idea and you are not allowed to back out of it. Do you want to make a Jewish mother angry?” Erik cringed, “That’s what I thought. The boys will be excited especially since…” Kitty stopped talking and focused on the controls on the plane in front of her.

            “Especially since…” pushed Erik.

            “The memories…from the House of M. They’re all still there. So the boys…as weird as it is, remember a life with you to an extent. I took to writing it all down, as I remembered it. The twins did too. Together, they discussed it all and…well Doctor Strange recommended it to us as a therapy technique. It’s working better for some than for others.” She thought back to Peter Parker who was finally able to look Mary-Jane in the eye without wanting to run.

            “It hasn’t faded from them?”

            “No, for me, it’s nearly gone. But that might be because they got “woken up” last…or because of their own magic, or some other mystical thing, or just a twist of fate, I don’t know. They know the memories aren’t real. But they can’t help but think about them.”

            Back at the Young Avengers HQ, hanging out as part of team bonding. Though everyone was pretty much doing their own thing. It left the young superheroes bored out of their minds. Eli was reading a book, while Teddy played a new video game. Shortly after Billy and Tommy got a text message from Kitty in their group chat.

            “Erik said Yes! See you at your house at 6 on Friday.” The twins blanked.

            “What was that?” asked Teddy.

            “Erik said yes.” Said Billy.

            “He’s actually coming.” Added Tommy.

            “Who’s Erik?” asked Cassie.

            “Erik Lehnsherr.”

            “MAGNETO?” asked Eli. The boys nodded, “Magneto is coming to your house?” the boys nodded again, “Why?”

            “Mom invited him.” Said Tommy.

            “We told her and Dad we found out about our birth and pretty much everything we knew…”

            “…and then she decided to invite him and Kitty to Shabbat dinner…apparently Kitty’s still on speaking terms with him after the House of M stuff.”

            “But we know that wasn’t Magneto’s fault.”

            “The X-men don’t care,” said Tommy, “Kitty told us that Emma is still livid we didn’t let her do whatever it was she wanted to do to Billy. So she’s cursing anyone and everyone related to the Scarlet Witch.”

            “I think she’s just mad we all found out she secretly wants to be married to Cyclops,” said Kate.

            “WHAT?” asked the twins.

            “When I first met her, Wolverine took us to her apartment, her and Cyclops were married.”

            “She’s a piece of work,” said Cassie.

            “She’s popular with the students and telepaths are so hard to find.” Said Tommy.

            “Well we know why Cyclops keep her around.” Said Kate.

            “Yeah, he has a thing for women who can read his mind.” Commented Tommy, “Come on. Let’s go to the movies or something, relax a little?”

            “Pie at the diner two blocks over?” suggested Cassie and the gang raced over.  

            Back at the X-Mansion, Erik Lehnsherr was looking at the syllabus before him and a group of eager young students he wasn’t eager to deal with. History! Kitty had put him in charge of history. Was that some kind of cruel joke?  He stepped out of the classroom, with students still shuffling in and saw Kitty hanging around outside.

            “Katherine, I do not believe this is the most suitable place for me.”

            “Tough. This is the class, you’re teaching it. Go on in...and wear this,” She revealed a metal looking band, “it should keep the telepaths from you. I know how you feel about your thoughts….and it’s less intimidating than your helmet.” She stood on her tip toes and put it on him. “Now get in there.”

            “But Emma….”

            “Forget Emma, forget Scott. I’ll deal with them; you deal with the students.”

            Erik groaned, but entered the classroom again. No one seemed too surprised by the fact that it was Magneto who would be teaching their class. Kitty likely warned them, he thought to himself. A few people seemed a little at odds with Erik’s simple attire, a button down shirt and slacks.

            The class was full, one giant rock-like student, another with arm gauntlets, another with wings, one green and another covered head to toe, among many other students.

            “According to the syllabus, Katherine left here for me, you are set to talk about…of course…early emergence of mutants in the 20th century. I suppose we shall have to start with the egomaniac that is Namor, King of Atlantis. We surface dwellers are beneath his bother…with exception that is.”

            He went through a whole lecture. No one fell asleep and no one made snarky comments.

            “For homework, I suggest you read over your textbook on this section, particularly the actions taken by young Bucky Barnes in 1940’s. We will be discussing the effects Captain America and Bucky had in the war. Class dismissed.” After a week of teaching, an evening with the adopted parents of his grandchildren would be a piece of cake. Right?

            Erik Lehnsherr had faced terrors unlike anyone has ever heard, he suffered, and faced off against villains far worse than himself.  He had fought against the worst of humanity. But not even an overly perky, young Jewish woman with a bright brain (and was as good as his own child) could have prepared him for this.

            “Oh relax,” said Kitty as she pulled up in front of a lovely townhouse, “Don’t be so dramatic.”

            “Are you a mind reader now too?” asked Erik.

            “No. I just know you really well.” Kitty parked the car and they got out, “Be nice, and try not to glare at the younger Kaplan boys, Jacob and Simon. They’re surprisingly sweet kids. When they want to be. And don’t mention mutant politics.”

            “Party pooper.”

            “Talk about Israel instead. We all agree on Israel,” begged Kitty as she grabbed her purse, “Come on.”

            They walked up to a large, dark door and Kitty hit the doorbell. She wore a cute blue dress, her Star of David hanging around her neck as always and Erik wondered if there was ever one in his family.

            The door opened before Kitty’s hand left the door and Rebecca pulled her quickly into a hug, “Kitty!”

            “Hi Rebecca,” said Kitty, “And this is Erik.”

            “Mr. Lehnsherr!” Rebecca extender her hand for Magneto to shake. She seemed uneasy shaking hands with a semi-former genocidal terrorist. But Kitty was smiling so warmly.

            “Erik, please, thank you so much for your invitation.”

            “You are family.” Said Rebecca as Magneto shook her hand, “Jeff’s just finishing up the salad and we can eat as soon as the candles are lit.”

            Rebecca stepped aside to let them into the house. Following the events of the death of Mrs. Altman, Rebecca and Jeff went full force on house hunting. Despite the fact that Billy had fixed the giant whole in the wall, the remains of Mrs. Altman were entrenched into the memory of the carpet that laid in the living room.

            The townhouse was a much better than the apartment. It had an extra bedroom for guests, or in the event that one of the boys needed space. She suspected that sooner or later one of the boys, most likely Jacob would want his own room to assert his independence. But for now, he seemed happy sharing with the youngest person in the family.

            There was a small entryway where coats could be hung, before they headed into the living room, “Kitchen is straight ahead, and bathroom is to your left.” Billy and Tommy practically ran down the stairs. “And here’s Billy and Tommy.”

            “Wow. Uh…when Kitty told me you looked just like Wanda and Pietro I didn’t…quite um…the pictures certainly don’t do it justice. It’s nice to meet you.”

            “I’m Tommy, he’s Billy.”

            “Hi, um...are we supposed to call you Magneto? Erik? Grandpa? Saba? Opa?”

            “Well I wouldn’t be opposed to Zaydi, but Erik or Grandpa is perfectly fine with me. Whatever makes you more comfortable.” Said Erik, shaking hands with the boys, “It is wonderful to know that the boys were raised in the Jewish faith. I must admit I have been far from observant in my years.” Kitty had told the boys that Magneto was Jewish.

            Jeff peaked out from the kitchen and introduced himself and soon after Jacob and Simon ran in, with Simon sticking a little bit behind his older brother, “Wow Magneto’s at our house!” said Jacob, “That is so cool.”

            “It’s not that big of a deal,” said Billy, “Kitty’s been to our house constantly. We’re superheroes.”

            “Yeah, but are you Magneto? Superheroes are overrated.” Erik laughed.

            “Your children are quite amusing Mrs. Kaplan.”

            “It’s Jeff and Rebecca, since you’re Erik. So tell me…what is it that you’re doing now…we tend not to judge...it’s just…?”

            “I do have a reputation. No offense taken, I assure you. The fault is my own for my questionable actions. Following the reality changing events I was left alone in the face of my greatest failure. The credit goes to Kitty for rescuing me and convincing me, somewhat against my will and better judgement, to go into teaching. I’m the new history professor at the Xavier Institute. Charles would find this quite amusing.”  The answer didn’t seem to convince Rebecca outward, but it did intrigue her.

            “Where’s the professor?” asked Tommy.

            “Conversation for another day,” said Kitty, “Erik’s been pretty popular. He’s got a natural gift.”

            “It is easy to teach that which one has seen. I suspect I will have some trouble when I have to teach about the French Revolution.”

            “What’s to know?” asked Tommy, “Monarchy started sucking, people rose up and chopped some heads because they couldn’t figure out what else to do.”

            “And the other teachers have no problem with your new position?”

            “Emma put up a fight. But I put her in her place,” said Kitty, the twins giggled.

            Everyone chuckled and ten-year-old Simon wondered out to sit between the twins.

            “What’s for dinner?” he asked softly.

            “Salad,” said Jeff with a smile and Simon made a face, “Okay, okay, there’s stuff. There’s potatoes.”

            “I’m sorry, I can’t quite seem to get over how much you look like your mom and uncle.” Erik said awed at the twins, “I am honestly at a loss for words.”

            Rebecca and Jeff exchanged glances, “Kitty, why don’t you help me grab the things we need to welcome the Shabbos. Jacob, Simon, why don’t you help your father set the table.”

            “But the…oh,” Kitty stood up and followed Rebecca into the kitchen and the boys lagged behind.


	23. Dinner Part 2

            “What are they like?” asked Billy, “The only memories we have are of…well the other world.”  Sitting in the living room with their grandfather, their biological grandfather was surreal experience. He was there, sitting in front of them, and they looked like him.

            “It is a gift and a curse that we still remember those events, is it not?” asked Erik, “Sadly, I have failed all three of my children. Pietro has always been hot headed and never thinks anything through. But despite that he is fiercely protective of his sister and his loved ones and deep down he wants to do what is best for his family.”

            “Sounds like you,” said Billy, turning to his brother “Minus the hot headedness.”

            “What about Wanda?” asked Tommy almost afraid of the answer.

            “A kind soul if there ever was one. When I first met them, I had no knowledge of their relation to me, just two mutants I had saved…they stuck around my brotherhood because they believed they owed me a debt…or perhaps I made them believe that. Still, your mother was as kind as her mother was and cared immensely for others. I am afraid I wasn’t the best father to either of them. But perhaps I could be a decent grandfather, with some practice.”

            “Works for us,” said the boys as Rebecca walked in. They lit a lot of candles, six for the family, and two each for Kitty and Erik. Kitty and Rebecca waved their hands over the flames and recited the prayer over the candles, welcoming a blessed Shabbat.

_Baruch atah, Adonai,_ _Eloheinu, melech haolam,_ _asher kid'shanu b'mitzvotav,_ _v'tzivanu l'hadlik_ _ner shel Shabbat._

_Blessed are you, Adonai our God, Sovereign of the universe, who hallows us with mitzvot, commanding us to kindle the light of Shabbat._

            “Do you light candles every Friday?” asked Erik.

            “Mostly,” said Jacob, “Mom says it’s important for children to have balance and tradition in their lives.”

            Jeff asked everyone to move to the dining room where everything had already been set and Magneto was seated right across from the twins. He said a prayer over the wine, with everyone drinking, minus the younger boys who had grape juice, then the challah and everyone ate a piece, before sitting down to dinner.

            “Billy, Tommy what are you doing? I heard you mention you were superheroes?”

            “Yup!” said Simon, “But it’s a secret.”

            “I won’t say a word to anyone,” said Magneto and Simon smiled timidly.

            “Yeah…. we’re superheroes…ish…the Young Avengers.” Said Billy

            “And they’ve already put the Avengers and the X-men in their rightful places,” said Kitty taking the offered chicken from Rebecca.

            “A truly admirable accomplishment,” said Erik the twins beamed. The potato skins were passed around next, followed by the salad. Rebecca and Jeff frowned, perhaps getting approval from a former mutant terrorist wasn’t what they were hoping for their boys.

            “Kitty mentioned you were adopted separately, how did you find each other?” he placed vegetables on his plate and took the chicken from Rebecca.

            “Destiny!” said the boys.

            “My first adoptive parents ditched me after my powers manifested,” said Tommy, “And since Xavier’s couldn’t detect me, I ended up in foster care. Then one day, I ended up at the mall. I barely had any money and then this nerd appeared.”

            “We were at this store and I was deciding between the Princess Bride and Sounds of Music, and then he zooms by me and it was…” Said Billy.

“Something just clicked. We screamed and had the “why do you look like me” moment. At first I thought that maybe our parents had kept Billy. I didn’t take the whole family thing well.”

  “Tommy ran off after meeting the family and I had to find him.”

            “That was the first time you did something so strenuous with your powers, right?” asked Kitty.

            “Teleported to Independence Hall, yeah.”

            “Charming place,” said Erik.

            “We’ve been there a handful of times, saw the Liberty Bell, but never inside the hall,” said Billy.

            “We should go sometime,” said Tommy, “Maybe grab the rest of the Young Avengers.”

            “Eli would die.” Said Billy and the boys laughed, “It would be fun.”

            “Do you boys like history?” asked Erik.

            “It beats math,” said Tommy.

            “Well perhaps, one day you and I might go to Boston together, see the sight of the Boston Massacre, Paul Revere’s house. I’ve always wanted to go. But I so rarely had the time.”

            Rebecca and Jeff exchanged looks and a got a soft nod from Kitty, “If your parents allow it, of course, I wouldn’t want to overstep.”

            “Oh not at all, I think that is something we can definitely discuss,” said Rebecca.  

            “Erik’s a wonderful teacher, he has a real knack with the students. Although, they might just be behaving like this because they’re too scared of the consequences of angering the great Magneto.”

            Erik snorted softly, “I highly doubt that. Although I dare say my reputation precedes me, unfortunately.”

            “That’s for sure,” said Kitty after swallowing, “Jeff this chicken is amazing.”

            “Well thank you Kitty. It’s nothing fancy and I enjoy cooking. It’s relaxing after work.”  

            “What is it that you do Jeff?” asked Erik.

            “I’m a cardiologist at the hospital not too far from here.”

            “A noble profession.”

            “Yeah we’re Jewish kids with doctors for parents. We’re so original.” Said Jacob and everyone laughed.

            “How are things going at the school?” asked Rebecca.

            “The usual, alien invasions, human hate groups. Fun adventures in the realm of teaching at a mutant school.” Said Kitty, “To top it off the kids end up getting themselves in certain situations. Last week they decided the danger room would be a fun way to settle a rivalry…and what happened? They accidentally turned off the safety protocols. Unbelievable. Hank is still working on new protocols to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”  

            With the meal finished everyone moved back to the living area, with the younger boys going upstairs with Rebecca. She returned moments later with photo albums.

            “Mom not the photo albums,” begged Billy.

            “As you can see Erik, we have some pictures up on the mantelpiece, the most recent up there was the twins’ last birthday party.” Erik looked over, after receiving a cup of tea from Kitty and there they were. Smiling over the sixteen candles on their birthday cake. He moved on to a couple of Kaplan family vacations, and one of a lot of other family. “All the other pictures are in here, including tons of the boys.”

            Carefully Erik sat down beside Rebecca and took a sip of his tea, Kitty sat on the opposite end and the twins looked on from behind them.

            “This was Tommy’s first family gathering with us. He and Billy ended up retreating to their room pretty quickly.  But I managed to snap this.” It was a picture of Tommy being hugged by Bubbe while Billy watched in the background. She turned the page, “Oh and here’s their first birthday party together.” The twins smiling faces as they blew out their candles, “This one is my favorite. It’s from Tommy’s first night with us.” The twins leaned over and saw a photo of them, cuddled together on Billy’s bed, fast asleep.

            “The camera didn’t wake them up?” asked Erik.

            “We were so exhausted that night, there could have been an alien invasion going on and we would have slept right through it.” Said Tommy.

            “Oh,” said Rebecca, and flipped all the way to the beginning, “We got all their baby pictures at the beginning of the book.”

            “If Billy and Tommy only found each other a few years ago, how did you get his baby pictures,” everyone was silent for a moment, “Oh! I apologize. I didn’t mean to pry.”

            “No, it’s okay Mom, tell him.” Said Tommy putting a hand on Rebecca’s shoulder.

            “Long-story short,” cut in Jeff, “The Shepherds arrived after we began the process to adopt Tommy…it did not go well with them. They’re not good people. They left several boxes, the remainder of Tommy’s things with them and we managed to get some amazing pictures.”

            “Oh man,” remembered Billy, “Do you remember your history assignment?”

            “The one we were called in about?” asked Rebecca and the four smiled, “They had to pick a relative or historical figure, preferably relative that they admired, who made some kind of contribution to history or something.”

            “That I wrote about Magneto,” said Tommy to his brother, “And it was your idea.”

            The younger twin smiled and shrugged, “Genetics are funny.”

            “Well, it appears that by all accounts you’ve raised fine boys.” Said Erik, rolling up his sleeves, sweat pouring over him from the warmth of the tea. Rebecca noticed it first and made a mental note for later and sent a look to her husband. The twins followed their mother’s gaze, but said nothing. Everything made a little bit more sense now.

            “Do the boys have any other relatives we ought to know about?”

            “Aside from their mother and uncle, there is their Aunt Lorna, who’s inherited my gift of magnetism. There is Pietro’s daughter Luna and her mother Crystal on the Moon,” Erik took another sip of tea trying to remember, “That is about it for my side…Wanda and Pietro’s mother has been long dead, and I no longer have any family beyond that.”

            “I see,” said Rebecca, “Perhaps you know the answer to this then. We were wondering…when the boys were found they had already been named Thomas and William. Do you know where the names came from?”

            “I do actually, I was present for that. William was named after Simon Williams.”

            “Wonder Man?” asked Billy.

            “His thought patterns were the basis for the feelings and emotion the Vision developed…or something like that. I don’t know the details. But from what I gathered Simon thought of Vision as a brother, something which his mother was delighted about.”

            “Is she still alive?” asked Jeff.

            “No idea. I only met her the day Wanda and Vision revealed the names of the children.”

            “What about me?” asked Tommy eagerly.

            “You were named Thomas after Phineas Thomas Horton, a brilliant scientist who created the original Human Torch, Jim Hammond, which somehow led to the creation of Vision. Again, I don’t know everything. Though I suppose that makes him more your grandfather than Ultron.”

            “Imagine having to submit that family tree at Hebrew school,” said Jeff to Billy and everyone chuckled lightly.

            “So a career as a super-villain isn’t out of the question?” asked Tommy innocently.

            “It had better be if you know what’s good for you,” said Rebecca.

            “I happen to agree with your mother there,” said Erik. Kitty grinned not too far away and sent a thumbs up to the twins, “It’s not a good life, and it leaves one with more problems than ever worth it.”

            “Can I get you anything else Erik?” asked Jeff.

            “No, thank you. This has been a lovely evening. Unfortunately, we should probably be getting back to the campus. But I would love to see you and the boys again, if that would be alright.”

            Rebecca and Jeff exchange glances, as married couples always did. “I think that would be perfectly fine.”

            “Maybe we can get you guys back to the school for a weekend?” suggested Kitty as they both stood out.

            “We’ll walk them out.” Said the boys quickly and walked with Kitty and Magneto to the door.  

            “Thanks for coming,” said Billy hugging Kitty tightly before switching with Tommy.

            “Hey, this place is awesome.” Said Kitty letting Tommy go.

            “Your parents are quite remarkable.” Said Magneto, “And their raised two fine boys.”

            The boys grinned and wrapped their arms around the master of magnetism, tightly. He let out a soft gasp before returning the gesture. “I will do my best to make sure we see each other again soon.”

            “In the meantime,” said Kitty, “You can reach him at his new email address. [Magneto@XavierSchool.com](mailto:Magneto@XavierSchool.com). And I’ll make sure he responds.”

            “Of course I would respond to email from my grandchildren. I am not heartless.” Said Erik, “It’s whiny, self-absorbed emails from Scott I tend to ignore.” Kitty opened the door and they stepped out to grab the ship and return to the school.

           


	24. Civil War, The Beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They didn't know it was coming, but it came. Now what will happen to them?

            The team was at the club house following a truly amazing defeat of several members of some or other evil group of people.  School was a drag, but friends kicking butt together made it all bearable. They lounged around the lair, dressed back in their civilian clothes and ignoring Eli’s “after the patrol” rant. Kate was trying to talk Eli down from talking about what went wrong and what needs improvement, while Tommy wolfed down a bag of chips in the kitchen and Billy and Teddy cuddled on the couch.

            Cassie was relaxing in a chair beside the Vision who was scanning frequencies.

            “And I’m telling you you’re working us too hard,” snapped Kate, “Give it a rest already.”

            “Pardon me for interrupting, but there is something on ZNN that pertains to us.” Said the Vision.

            Teddy grabbed the remote and turned on the TV. The bickering stopped as a news broadcast came on. _“MRVL Network’s New Warriors were in the middle of shooting a latest episode when their reality show went wrong. The villain Nitro exploded in Stamford, Connecticut and we are still getting reports. Current death toll is 400, but witness accounts say it could be much higher. We now go to Christine Everhart, our one spot journalist. Christine…”_

The television moved away from the gentleman on the screen, the sky was darkening and everything surrounding it was gray and broken. Goliath could be seen, knelt down in the distance and a rumbling of the earth could be heard, with controlled, floating debris.

            _“As you can see, we were not allowed inside the detonation area. But local fire-departments are working with the world’s finest heroes, as well as the X-men to sort through the rubble, much like they did after 9/11. Some view this as a catalyst. This is the latest in a series of violent incidents involving various superheroes and the locals are not to keen on the relief effort they've provided. It is a truly depressing site. The question on everyone’s minds is, what will the government do to protect our children? This is Christine Everhart for ZNN.”_

            “World’s finest heroes as well as the X-men. Are the X-men not heroes now? I hate pretentious reporters.” Said Tommy.

            “And did you see the floating debris? I bet that was Rachel.” Finished Billy.

The report continued but no one was listening at that point.

            “This is bad,” said Kate, “This is very bad.” She grabbed her phone off the table and set out a text.

            A week later She-Hulk was on a talk-show talking about a proportional response to the violence.

            “Does she not understand what a risk that is for other superheroes?” asked Eli, “That’s so oppressive, secret identities are a thing.”

            “Not for the Fantastic Four,” piped up Cassie, “Although…. you guys remember all those reports about Matt Murdock being Daredevil?”

            “We met Mr. Murdock once, he was a nice guy.” Said Tommy.

            “Yeah and when people thought he was Daredevil he had to hire security and everything.” Added Teddy, “Jessica told me about it. Sure his superhero identity isn’t much of a secret. But it got bad. What would happen if the government got a hold of our secret identities?”

            “This isn’t new though,” said Kate.

            “Kate is correct, the Superhuman Registration Act has been in and out of the Senate for years,” added Vision.

            “This is like the mutant registration act all over again,” said Billy, “Except this time, it’s not mutants, it’s anyone with powers. They don’t understand how quickly things can go wrong.”

            Teddy’s phone rang and he nearly jumped out of his seat, “Hi Luke…yeah I’m with the others…. where? Okay. Tomorrow. Got it.”

            “What was that?” asked Eli.

            “We’ve been asked to come to the Baxter Building tomorrow night.” Said Teddy.

            “All of us?” asked Tommy.

            “The whole team, apparently all the superheroes are getting together to talk about the Registration Act.”

            “Watch, the Fantastic Four will be all for it,” said Billy.

            “Maybe it’s worth hearing everyone out? We’ve only heard the news reports.”

            Teddy sheepishly moved to the edge of the couch, “That’s not entirely accurate. I’ve heard Luke and Jess talking about it. They’re both scared and unsure about what this means.” Billy leaned is head on Teddy’s shoulder, “Hell, I don’t know about you guys, but I’m scared.”

            “Let’s not worry until there’s something to worry about. We’ll go to the meeting and go from there.” Said Eli, “We’ll go, hear both sides of the story and go from there.”

            It was a madhouse when the Young Avengers arrived at the Baxter Building. Luke met them at the elevator, with more superheroes than anyone had ever seen before in one place. The Fantastic Four were there, minus Johnny Storm who was in the hospital. There were people they knew, and heroes they had never even seen before, with drinks in their hands.

            “Grab something to drink, and try to relax,” said Luke, “And hopefully this will blow over.”

            “No chance of that,” said Iron Man.

            “Isn’t it kind of big of you to be wearing that armor right now?” asked Luke.

They walked through, shuffling between the new and old faces and settled into a comfortable corner.

            “What exactly does all this mean?”

            “Are we going to be Federal Agents with badges now?” asked Janet Van Dyne, “With Dental?”

            “What about super powered people who aren’t superheroes anymore?” asked Luke, “Is it work for the government or be arrested?”

            “Now hold on,” said Reed, “That’s now what this is. The government simply wants reassurance, and for now we should abide by it. It will be the law.”

            “Because something that’s legal is automatically right?” asked Eli, “I mean you’re telling me that just because this passes as law we have to abide by it because it’s what the government wants?”

            “You’re Patriot right? Young Avengers?”

            “You’ve heard of us?”

            “I’ve heard about a lot,” said Reed and he didn’t sound too impressed, “Hulkling. Hawkeye, Stature, Vision and Caster and Speed, correct? Good to have you here. For you there’s talk of a training facility.”

            “Training facility?” asked Speed, “What kind of facility?”

            “A boot camp of sorts,” put in Iron Man, “You would go through tests and based on your training abilities, you would then be sent out on missions.”

            “Missions by whom?” asked Castor.

            “The government.”

            “To where?”

            “Wherever they deem necessary,” said Iron Man, “Of course providing you pass your examinations. We can’t have teenaged superheroes running around without training.”

            “They’ll be more accountability and more transparency.”

            “Isn’t that what the president said when he was running for election?” asked Caster.

            “And everything happens exactly as it’s promised right?” asked Speed.

            “What’s the general consensus?” asked Cyclops.

            “As far as I’m concerned, Stamford was our wake-up call. What Alcoholics call a moment of clarity. Becoming public employees makes perfect sense if it helps people sleep a little easier.” Explained Iron Man.

            Sue Storm and Spider-Man exchanged words before Kate added, “Spider-Man makes a good point. How many times have your children been kidnapped? How many people’s lives been screwed up by a villain finding out their secret identity?”  Reed started arguing with her.

            Ben Grimm popped up as the twins were grabbing a drink, “You’re Caster and Speed right?” The twins nodded, “Kitty’s mentioned you. Good to know there’s more of us fighting the good fight.”

            “You know Kitty?”

            “There are so few Jewish superheroes around, we gotta stick together.” They had bonded with The Thing. After that, everything else didn’t seem so scary. But oh how things were going to change, and change fast. 

            Just a few days later, Patriot was apprehended and Teddy was grabbed n his way to meet up with the others, and despite their powers, they were unable to stop the onslaught of SHIELD agents coming after them. By the time Patriot warned the rest of the team it was too late and the others were being loaded on to a SHIELD transport. Handcuffs, power dampeners, they felt like criminals.

            It was odd though, wasn’t it? Caster thought as they walked him up the platform, while the guards mocked them for a building that was shot up. The registration act was passed and it went into effect almost immediately. Was it an executive order? Or was the government so determined to infringe on freedom that neither Congress nor the President gave it a second thought. Something just didn’t add up in the grand scheme of things.

            “This sucks,” said Speed trying to move his legs, but couldn’t do anything with the collar around his neck, “We have to do something!”    

            “What Speed?” demanded Patriot angrily, “What could we possibly do?”

            “Oh, I don’t think you’re completely without options,” said one of the SHIELD soldiers and knocked out the other one. He took off his helmet.

            “Falcon!” said Patriot, as Sam Wilson ran over and took off Caster’s power collar, “What’s going on?”

            “No time, Caster can you teleport us to our hideout?”

            “If…” his voice was coarse, “if you know where it is, yes.” The magical energy surged through the transport and they landed inside of a special SHIELD bunker known only to one Nick Fury.

            “Great, can we please get these stupid collars off?” asked Speed, “Please.”

            “Give me a second,” called Daredevil analyzing the cuffs, and helped everyone get them off.

            “From now on,” said Steve Rogers, “This is your home.”

            Kate shrugged and Eli looked unsure, Vision made no change in mood or thought. Cassie looked a little uneasy, just like Teddy, leaving the twins.

            “What about our parents?” asked the twins.

            “Call them on a secure line, tell them you’re alright. But this is how it has to be. If you go in and out, Tony can track you, even with your powers Caster. It’s too much of a risk.”

            “Guys, you need to see this,” called Dagger and everyone turned to a monitor. Spider-Man revealed his secret identity.

            “Let’s get you guys settled in,” pushed Daredevil and led them to some quarters, “My suggestion would be to double up, we’ll have a lot more people coming in.” Naturally Cassie and Kate paired up while Steve took Vision elsewhere.

            “I’ll room with the cranky pants,” said Tommy, “But you’ll owe me big.” He whispered to his brother.  Billy opened his mouth to say something, “I know, I know. Best brother ever. Love you Billy.”

            Billy just grinned, “Love you too. We need to call Mom and Dad first.”

            “Can’t you just leave her a note via your magic or something?” asked Eli.

            “Have you ever met a Jewish mother?” asked Tommy, “She’ll send out an army to find us.”

            “As opposed to SHIELD agents already looking for us?” asked Kate, “In the meantime, any chance of us finding something decent to sleep in?” Billy waved his hand and a spark flew out, “Thank you.” She kissed his cheek and the girls retired.

            They went and grabbed that secure line and called home “No Mom, we’re okay.” Said Tommy.

            “Where are you? We’ll come get you?”

            “It’s not safe out there for us right now and I can’t tell you where we are—” tried Billy

            “What do you mean you can’t tell me, I’m your mother?” said Rebecca.

            “We’re safe, we’re being looked after.” Finished Tommy.

            “Are you at the school?”

            “No Mom, we told you, we can’t tell you. It has to be a secret. Just, please trust us, we’ll try to contact you when we can…please don’t look for us.” Billy’s voice cracked as he heard the voice behind the phone.

            “But—you’re with Captain America?”         

            “Mom, please don’t ask us that, just trust us. We’re okay. And we will call you when we can.”

            “Billy, Tommy…take care of each other.” Said Jeff on the other end, and the twins could hear sobs coming behind him.

            “We’re so sorry. We love you.” Said the boys.

            “We love you too. Be careful.” The twins hung up and stood in silence for a moment taking it all in. Their mother’s broken voice. Everything was falling apart, right before their eyes.

            Billy and Teddy settled into their bunk room, which Billy admittedly tweaked ever so slightly.

            “I never got a chance to ask, but what happened with Luke and Jessica?” Billy as he took off his head piece.

            “I came back to grab my gloves, I don’t think they heard me,” answered Teddy staring at the ceiling, “Tony was there, with Ms. Marvel. I stuck around to hear it, I didn’t think it would go into effect right away. So I stuck around to hear, that’s why I was late for patrol today…”

            “What did they say?”

            “Pretty much the same thing they said at the meeting, government sanctioned, more legitimate, healthcare benefits, sweeping the past under the rug. Luke brought up slavery.”

            “Eli did too.”

            “Right, but then he compared it to Mississippi in the 1950’s when Tony said they would come after us and drag us out of the house.”

            “Okay Eli didn’t get that far, damn.” Billy changed into t-shirt and pants and lay down beside Teddy.

            “Yeah, then they started talking about going to Canada, and Luke said he wouldn’t leave. He knew I wouldn’t want to go either and then I had to go. I’m guessing Jessica probably packed up her and Danielle and they left.” Teddy pulled Billy tightly into his arms, “I don’t know what happened after.”

            The door opened and the two jumped up, Luke Cage stood in the doorway of the little shuttle-like room.

            “Luke, you’re okay!” said Teddy.

            “Fine, kid, just fine,” said the older man, he looked exhausted, baggy eyes and was wearing a gray sweater, “How are you kids?”

            “We’ve seen better days.”

            “Take it easy for a few days, get acquainted, the others will be here soon.” Luke’s grim expression was matched by the others, “Good night.”

            The world was falling apart at the seams; friends turning against friends, country turning against its people. What would become of them?


	25. Young Avengers/Runaways Civil War Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm in grad school, but one semester out of the way I can post a chapter.

Wars were won by men, that’s what Captain America said, in an echo of the colonel who helped to train him all those years ago. It was surreal to be working with him, but Eli grumbled most of the time. Cap and the adults were constantly out on missions, doing recon, and sadly there wasn’t a whole lot for the Young Avengers to do during this time, except monitor duty, which they had to do regardless of whether they wanted to or not. The adults may have recognized them as heroes, but they never forgot that they were kids.

Speaking of monitor duty, putting all of them on it was kind of silly, since Vision monitored any and all transmissions, news reports, SNL sketches, C-SPAN rants, etc.

            _\--Human Torch still in critical condition after attack outside prominent New York City nightclub—_

_\--Emma Frost, mutant and co-headmaster of the Xavier School has released a statement of neutrality in relation to the super human civil war and the registration act, in response to a recent attack on their students during a fieldtrip--_

            _\--New York-based “Young Avengers” became the latest band of heroes to defy government regulations demanding registration—_

            “G-d our parents are watching that,” said Caster and covered his mouth with his hand, shaking as he looked at his cell phone. Once they had secured the network inside the base, once a day Billy would turn on his phone, just to see. Each day there were more and more phone calls and text messages. Tommy’s phone was the same way. Voice mails from their parents begging for updates and how they vigorously watched the news, looking for any and all mentions of the Young Avengers. Rebecca’s voice was always soft, but they could always hear the underlying sadness left over from crying.

            Billy stared at his phone for another moment before turning it off and briefly meeting Tommy’s gaze.

            “Everything’s gone crazy,” said Stature

            “And we’re on monitor duty,” said Hawkeye.            

            “Better in here than out there with the adults,” said Caster, “Everyone’s so different…no one’s acting like themselves.”

            “Of course not, especially not Captain America,” said Speed, “He just got betrayed by his best friend.”

            “Iron Man wouldn’t betray someone, Tommy. He probably has a good reason to support the registration act.” Cassie turned to look at him.

            “It’s called being a sell-out Cassie.” Billy watched his brother quietly from his corner of the room. He’d gotten angrier and withdrawn. But before he could ponder the thought of his twin, Vision convulsed due to an unsettling image on the screen.

            “I apologize for making you worry,” said Vision after he recovered. Cassie glanced up at the screen.

            “Wait a minute,” she said moving closer, “That’s the group of runaways who left home when they found out their parents were super-villains.”

            “You know them?” asked Eli.

            “I wanted to join them before I found out about you guys.”

            “The government just fired missiles at them…and they look about our age.” Said Kate, “Eli, we have to do something.”

            “Cap’s underground resistance has no support in LA…”

            “Then we she should go and help and recruit,” suggested Tommy and any attempt to talk Eli into just going failed as he stormed off to talk to Captain America, “What did Cap say?” the speedster asked afterward.

            “Doesn’t matter,” said Eli, “We’re going.”

            “So, that would be a no then,” said Tommy, “How are we getting there? Teleportation?” Or they commandeered a plane Billy disguised from detection as they set off to Los Angeles.

            While Vision flew the plane, Kate was digging for information, “They have full dossiers on these guys. It looks like Captain America had them put in foster homes at one point. They ran away from those too.”

            “I don’t blame them,” said Tommy.

            “I want everyone briefed as soon as possible.” Said Eli. Kate walked them through all the players, from the oldest, to the youngest, their history, the ones who were dead, as well as their history with Avengers.

            “Ha, no wonder these kids ran away from their foster homes. Cap royally screwed up this one.” Tommy leaned his head back and closed his eyes.

            “How’s that?” asked Eli.

            “Well think about it this way. All these kids had was each other after The Pride fell. They became a family through this, and if these files are accurate they lived pretty well for themselves. So you’re living among people you consider the most important in your life and in comes know-it-all Captain America and starts dictating to them what’s best. I’m not saying that they didn’t need supervision or parents. But splitting them up and putting them in foster homes probably did more harm than good. They distrust anyone with authority.”

            “So…we may have to rethink our approach,” added Teddy, “Less Avengers… more…  more Young Avengers?”

            “Do we have an approach?” asked Kate, “Because when Cassie and I wanted to join…that didn’t exactly go well.”

            “Any luck with getting their location, Billy?” asked Eli.

            “Is that even a question? There’s no luck involved.” It was rare for Billy to boast his skills, “I have their location. Also, their experiences demonstrate a clear distrust of authority, so I wouldn’t let Eli talk to them.” The others giggled.

            “So what are you suggesting we show up in our civies? Aren’t we fighting a war about that?”

            “At this point we’re not fighting anything,” said Teddy, “We’re in hiding. There’s a difference.”

            “And how do we know they’re not potential supervillains?” asked Eli.

            “Are we really about to jump into a nature vs nurture debate?” asked Cassie.

            They landed in a forest-like area, with plenty of green with a zoo not too far away. Billy’s magic led them right to the front entrance, where a sad little girl ran out from. So much for civies and civility.

            “You must be Molly, we’re the Young Avengers and we’re here to help.” 

            The girl’s shoulders hunched, “Avengers? S…stay away from me.”

            “There’s no need to be afraid,” pushed Eli kneeling down to her level, “We’re just here to help you.” It only took a moment before little Molly hurled a car at Cassie and Eli and threw Tommy into Billy, and into Teddy. Perhaps it was Eli’s forceful tone when he said they were there to help, or just the scowled look on his face that reminded Molly a bit too much of the regular Avengers, but either way, for some reason, despite being a big brother himself, he failed to connect with the tiny mutant girl.

            “Well…that didn’t work,” said Kate from a distance and shortly thereafter Molly passed out from the exhaustion of her powers. Eli grabbed her and they went inside.

            “We need to talk.” He held the girl out.

            “Molly!” screamed Chase.

            “What did you do to her?”  screamed Nico.

            “We don’t mean any harm,” said Cassie, “Really we’re trying to help and…” The Vision slipped into the room and attempted to help the lying Victor Mancha, causing a circuit overload of sorts, with electricity surging and both androids to scream.

            They started arguing, and nothing was getting done. Molly had attacked the Young Avengers and then went to sleep. Vision didn’t help. But the Runaways weren’t listening to a word being said. Cassie moved forward to get to Vision.

            “Just let her through.” Pleaded Caster, “Let her talk to him.”

            “You presume to give me orders skinny one?” asked the Skrull. Teddy jumped in before Xavin could make a move.  This led to a fight between Teddy and Xavin.

            “Hey, you’re attacking us, remember?” asked Nico.

            “No one is attacking anyone,” tried Speed, “Do you guys not know how to listen?

            “Chase get Molly,” called Nico. Kate was on her before she could say anything else.

            “If you could just listen.” Began Patriot.

            “No worries,” said Speed, “I got this. Look we’re not Avengers, we’re not here to fight. We’re the Young Avengers. We have a super-soldier, a giant girl, a robot from the 30th century, a skrull-kree super-soldier, my brother (who by the way can kick your ass with a wave of a hand), an Olympic class archer, and me, super speed, super sass. Now that you know you’re outgunned. Can you wait five seconds and listen?”

            “Well gosh,” said Chase, “That does sound pretty scary and I don’t have powers. But I do have a psychic link with a prehistoric eating machine.” Speed was easily able to avoid the beast’s attacks, keeping it running in a tizzy.

            “Hey Caster,” called Patriot, “If you’re planning on doing something, now would be the time?”

            “Fine,” snapped Caster, “But I told you so.” His magic pushed everyone out of the way and to separate corners. But it wasn’t working.

            “Look,” said Patriot as Speed ran about with Old Lace and Karolina and Xavin launched into another attack. Patriot looked at Nico, “This isn’t the time to be fighting. We’re the Young Avengers and while the adult superheroes are wrapped up in each other we thought maybe us kids could stick together. But maybe we’re no better than this.”

            Nico cast the spell. She called for everyone to chill out and boy did they.

            “Really?” asked Karolina being warmed only by the power of Xavin’s fire abilities.

            “It’s hard coming up with a new spell every time. It calmed everybody down, didn’t it?”

            “Yeah and now your dinosaur is out cold.” Said Caster.

            “Billy…make us warm.” Whined Tommy. Caster rolled his eyes and cast a spell that reverted everyone’s body temperature to normal, “Thank you.”

            “Baby.”

            “Thanks,” said Chase, “Now I don’t need Old Lacy to keep me warm.”

            “Dinosaurs are cold blooded; she wouldn’t have been able to help.”

            “It was just a joke, professor.”

            “I appreciate you putting a stop to this. If we’re going to get you guys out of here we don’t have much time.”

            “Slow down a second,” cut in Nico, “What makes you think me stopping the fight means we want your help? We don’t even know you guys.”

            “Young Avengers,” said Kate, removing her white scarf from her head.

            “So…are you like deputies? Aren’t the Avengers responsible for what happened to us in Santa Monica?”

            “Not exactly,” said Kate, “Do you guys not watch the news?” Nico Shrugged. “We’re just trying to help your friend.”

            “And we need to know your real names,” said Chase, “We’re not dealing with some Avenger wannabe names.”

            “Aren’t we fighting a war over secret identities?” asked Eli.

            “They don’t need our whole life stories, just our first names,” added Cassie, “That’s Kate and Eli, the twins are Billy and Tommy, I’m Cassie, and the other blonde is Teddy. Are we good now?”

            While the Vision was telling them about what he had discovered and Chase mentioned Ultron, Molly had woken up and saw Speed first.

            “So what? Are we friends now?”

            “Looks like it,” said Tommy paying close attention the commotion with the others, but staying at a distance.

            “Your hair is really white,” noted Molly, “Are you like a hundred years old?”

            “It’s part of my mutation,” said Tommy, “I’m actually Magneto’s grandson.”

            “What? No way. Hey what are your powers?”

            “I’m super-fast and if I shake things I can make them blow up.”

            Molly’s eyes grew wide, “Come on, let’s go blow something up.” She pulled Tommy after her. The others argued for a while on what to do, go to Cap, not go to Cap.

            “So what’s your name? And don’t give me your code name or whatever. Those are lame. Plus. You totally know my name. So what’s yours?”

            “I’m Tommy.”

            “Don’t you guys watch the news?” asked Kate. She shrugged in response to Nico and Chase who presented a pretty valid argument. The Young Avengers themselves had only aligned with Captain America due to no other options and being rescued from potential prison helped.

            A small explosion rocked behind them and the Young Avengers set their sights on their resident speedster.

            “She made me.” Said Tommy pointing to Molly.

            The kid shouted, “Guys! Tommy can blow stuff up!”

            Billy rolled his eyes to Teddy whispering softly, “He’s your brother.” The reaction didn’t seem to be much more than sighs and glares, before Tommy returned to playing with Molly. The kid seemed to be having fun at the very least.

            Xavin started yelling and quickly a snap was heard. Among them stood a man no older than them, with white hair and a green suit. He quickly ran through the, as if by instant, taking out Karolina, Billy, and Teddy like they were nothing. No time to react. No chance to cast spells or erupt in anger.

            The Vision was on top of it, not too far away and a fight commenced, but sadly, it left the original four attacked captured. Tommy and Molly had wondered off, running around and playing. Molly gave him a tour of the zoo and showed him her favorite animals before they returned missing all the commotion.

            “We miss something?” asked Tommy arriving with Molly hanging on his shoulders.

            “We were attacked while you were gone,” snapped Chase angrily looking at Molly as she jumped off her new friend, “Xavin and Karolina got captured! Where were you?”

            “Tommy was—” tried Molly.

            “I don’t want to hear it, Molly!” snapped Chase, “You need to grow up, do you hear me?”

             “Hey, don’t yell at her.” Tommy had dropped Molly off and did a quick perimeter check of the area, “Guys. Where’s Billy? Guys.”

            “He and Teddy got captured along with two of their people.”

            “Captured?” asked Tommy, “By who? Where?” His breathing increased, “We have to find him…we…we have to.” A few rocks exploded in the background.

            Kate was there in a second, her hand on Tommy’s shoulder, “Don’t worry. We’ll find Billy and the others, okay. I promise.” The speedster felt himself tremble and willed his molecules to cooperate. She rubbed his arm softly.

            “Look, we’re all worried about our people,” said Eli, “More arguing and yelling won’t bring them back, we’ve got to come up with a plan. So here it is. Let me know if you object. The Vision tracks the signal these creeps are using to find out where they are and where they’re holding out friends. And if they’ve so much as touched them, we make them wish they were never born. Do we all agree?”

            “After Gert, I never wanted to see another one of my friends die. I would have given anything to stay out of this stupid war. We tried to run away because we thought it was just a conflict between adults. But they’ve attacked us and kidnapped out friends. No one asked us what side we were on. Now it’s time for some avenging.”

            Meanwhile the others were taken in by the Warden and strapped to an examination wall, except for Xavin. The Warden, smiling gleefully at the sight in front of him as Billy willed his magic to cooperate.

            “Oh don’t bother with that,” said the Warden, “Your powers, while impressive, were easily subdued. You see, in order to cause something to happen, you have to thinking. Fascinating really. Thankfully, you can only operate as fast as you can think. The devises attached to you are impeding your focus, so you can’t concentrate long enough to cast one of your little spells.” Billy was not about to cry, he told himself as flashing lights and changing views kept him from concentrating. The attachments to his eyes prevented him from closing his eyes.


	26. Civil War Young Avengers/Runaways Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time to rescue the gang, but what will happen after?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi Ya'll hope you like this chapter. Please be aware, I am in graduate school and working two jobs, so I hope to update more often if I can, when I can.

Chapter 26

They found the facility and while the others were formulating their plan Tommy was practically vibrating out of his suit.

            “Can we hurry this up?” demanded Tommy, “And what is with this thing.” He indicated Old Lace as she once again tried to pee on him, “Is she trying to mark her territory or what?”

            “It’s not that. Old Lace is telepathically linked to Chase. It means he’s still mad at us for goofing off earlier.”

            “Stupid!” muttered Tommy looking up at the sky, “I promised I would watch out for him.” He kicked the sand if only not to kick the dinosaur.

            “Are you okay?” she asked.

            “As soon as I find Billy, I’ll be fine. He’s my twin.”

            “But you have different hair colors.”

            “My hair changed due to my mutant powers. But otherwise we’re twins. I’m the big brother though and it was my job to look after him and I failed.”

            “Chase used to be like my big brother before Gert died…but I don’t care anymore. Now he’s stupid.” Said Molly.

            Tommy kneeled down to face Molly, “Hey, I don’t think that’s it. I may not know the guy, but if he really is like your big brother, I think he’s probably just hurting. Was it hard losing your friend Gert?”

            “Yeah, it was worse for Chase though, cause they were in love.”

            “It can be hard to lose someone you love.” Tommy thought briefly back to his first adopted parents and how, despite the ups and down of his childhood, he did love them at one point. It made their betrayal all the more painful.

            “Who did you lose?” asked Molly.

            “Billy and I were adopted separately and my first adopted parents dumped me when they found out I was a mutant.”

            “Wow, that’s not cool…that’s total evil! Hey, you have evil parents, now you can stay with us. All our parents were super evil.”

            Tommy stood up and ruffled Molly’s hair, “Sorry kiddo, I’m a Kaplan now, Billy’s parents adopted me and they are literally the best parents humanely possible. So I don’t think I quite qualify.”

            Molly pouted slightly, “But you’re Magneto’s grandson and having a villain Grandpa sort of counts.”

            “Yeah, but he’s a good guy now. Sorry Mols.” He patted her gently on the head.

            The plan was ready and between Vision’s powers and Nico’s spell they burst forth into the cube. Tommy was impatient as ever as Vision patched himself into the mainframe. Tommy was ready to dump them all and go find Billy, but there were too many men to leave them to the others, especially with a twelve-year-old mutant, and at least two people without powers around.

            Then the white-haired guy who had knocked out their friends re-appeared and Tommy rammed him into a wall with all of his strength and anger. With most of the guards defeated, Tommy wasn’t waiting around anymore and had Vision guide him to where the others were.

            He burst into the room as Billy was standing upright and Karolina wrapped her arms around a very large Xavin.

            “Somebody order a rescue?” asked Tommy, “B….Caster… are you okay?” Tommy wrapped his arms around his brother tightly and Billy returned the hug quickly, not saying a word.

            It was during this moment in particular when Tommy saw the face of the man who had done something to Billy. He wasn’t sure what it was, “Is this him? Did he hurt you?” Tommy began shifting the molecules around the warden as he scattered towards a corner.

            “It doesn’t matter,” said Billy, “We’re okay. Speed, I promise I’m here, okay. I’m alive. You can’t kill him.”

            Tommy bit his lip, “He’d deserve it.”

            “I agree with the speedster.” Pointed out Xavin, and Karolina tapped him on the arm. 

            “See, the skrull agrees with me,” said Tommy.

            “Young Avengers don’t kill.” Billy put his hand on his brother’s shoulder, “Don’t do it, please.”

            “Tommy, Billy, Teddy, sorry to interrupt, but if you follow my voice down the hallway, we can proceed with out exit. The others require our assistance.”  

            The speedster’s eyes softened, but he still let a small explosion radiate through the room. Looking the warden right in the eyes he said, “Count yourself lucky Caster is nicer than you are.” The warden glared as the group followed Tommy down the hallway back to their teammates.

            Together the team took down Noh Varr and later, with Chase and Vision merged into one, they revived him and quickly made their exit as far away from the cube as possible. Billy transported the two teams back to where their ships waited.

            With everyone settled and in order, Billy was holding on to Teddy like his life depended on it. Tightly, with Teddy kissing his head softly.

            “We’re okay.” He whispered to his boyfriend, “I promise we’re okay.”

            Tommy looked at the two of them and Billy practically read his mind. He released himself from his boyfriend and walked over, whispering something to his brother, “You’re not okay, are you?”

            “Honestly, not really.”

            “Should have let me hurt that bastard,” muttered Tommy, kicking a rock.

Teddy went over to check on Xavin and Karolina and Eli tried one last time to convince Nico to join the resistance.

            “Take my advice,” said Nico walking towards their ship, “When the world goes crazy you run. You runaway.”

            “Bye Tommy!” Molly called back as she ran towards the Leapfrog

            The Runaways walked back to the Leapfrog, while the others turned towards their jet.

            “That may not be the worst advice in the world,” said Billy as Cassie was half-way up the ramp into the plane, “Sorry guys. But…I…I can’t go back to Cap’s base. I’m leaving.”

            “Billy,” began Kate, “We can’t know what the warden said…or did…”

            “That’s the thing, Kate you don’t know. You weren’t there. The warden said things and did things and I couldn’t do anything. He didn’t quite stop my powers, no one can actually do that but he…he…” his words caught up in his throat, “I can’t do this. I’m sorry.”

            “Billy come on,” pushed Eli, “Cap needs us.”

            “Cap has us on monitor duty. He doesn’t need us. Look, I’m not about to register or whatever. But…I’m not sure what we’re doing is healthy. So I’m not going back. I’ve made up my mind.”

            “And where exactly are you going to go?” asked Eli, “It’s not like we can go home? Our families would be in danger. Iron Man’s probably monitoring them.”

            “I’ll go to Xavier’s.”

            “Then I’m going with you.” Said Teddy bluntly.

            Billy shook his head and grabbed Teddy’s hands, “When the time comes, and I know it will, Cap’s going to need you, probably more than anyone else. I’ll be okay.”

            “Of course you will be,” said Tommy, “If you’re going, so am I.”  Billy opened his mouth to argue, “And don’t even think about it. Where you go, I go. Besides, I can’t let you get to be Grandpa Magneto’s favorite.”  Billy closed his mouth and chuckled.

            “We’ll find a way to get in contact, I promise.” Billy kissed Teddy and the two hugged tightly, “I’m sorry guys.”

            “If you change your mind, we could really use you both.” Said Eli, patting Billy on the back.

            “Be careful.” Said Kate and her and Cassie hugged Billy.

            “Can I get a kiss good-bye?” asked Tommy. Kate laughed and the girls kissed either of his cheeks.

            Billy and Tommy watched as everyone boarded the jet and flew off back towards New York city.

            “Ae you sure you want to do this?” asked Billy.

            “Please, you’re stuck with me.” Laughed Tommy, “We could probably join the Runaways. Molly totally loved me.”

Billy smiled weakly before his energy burst forth from his fingertips.

            “You want a plane? Teleportation? Or flight?”

            “Getting bold with our powers, are we? Whatever’s easier for you.” Billy pondered this and made a hand motion with his hand and they were covered with blue, smoky energy, vanishing from their position.

            The dust cleared and the energy rescinded, with the boys landing on the front lawn of the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters. It was still far too early in the morning, not quite seven, for students to be up and about.

            Tommy stumbled slightly, a little lightheaded from the trip. Regaining balance just in time to capture his stumbling brother.

            “Impressive bro,” said Tommy helping his twin up, “Try not to overdo it, though…and by overdo it, I mean leave the teleportation to the professionals. Try magic portals…or flying cross country.”

            It took less than a minute for Emma Frost and Scott Summers to appear on the front door, glaring like usual and trying to stare them down.

            “What are you doing here?”

            “What does it look like we’re doing here?”

            “You’re asking us to join Captain America’s side in the war.” Said Emma.

            “Actually, we’re asking for amnesty and protection.” Said Billy.

            “We’ll attend classes, join the x-men, whatever you want. Just let us stay and keep the big bad hand of the government off our backs. Please!”

            “On one condition,” said Emma, her lips curling into a wicked grin, “I work with that one.” She indicated to Billy.

            “Good luck getting past the mental barriers that we have no control over.” Added Tommy, “And you’re not touching him.” 

            “Fine,” said Emma, swishing her white cloak behind her, “Go back to Captain America then.”

            Tommy had texted someone before Emma even finished her sentence and the backup team arrived, consisting of Nightcrawler, Kitty and of course, Magneto.

            “You called for backup?” asked Scott.

            “We don’t trust you.” Said Billy. “But we’d like to stay please.”

            “Boys…what happened?” asked Kitty.

            Billy bit his lip, “We’re asking for amnesty. We know the X-men are staying neutral, but Ms. Frost has a condition. She wants to “work” with me.” He used his fingers to indicate air quotes. “Of course the last time she tried to enter our minds without permission she got knocked down. So I’m not sure what she wants to find.”

            “Emma,” began Erik, his voice rising, a deep, intimidating voice of a protective grandfather, “Are you telling me that my grandsons are only welcome here if they cooperate with your demands?”

            “It’s a simple demand, I don’t need another trip to Magneto Land.”

            “One,” began Kitty, “That was Quicksilver land, and two, I’m still not sure what you were complaining about? Other than everyone finding out you secretly want to marry Scott.”

            “Which if you ask us, you two deserve each other,” said the twins.

            Kitty sent a glare their way. This was not the time for their usual sassy remarks…no matter how right they were.

            “Fine, you may stay,” said Scott, “But you will be attending classes and don’t think you’re getting special treatments because your grandfather is Mangeto.”

            “Oh don’t worry,” said Tommy, “We know.”

            “Any and all special treatment that we get will be a result of having Kitty as a pseudo older sister.” Added Billy.

            The boys followed the others inside the mansion, which by the looks of it had only recently been rebuilt for the umpteenth time. It didn’t look like the mansion they had seen the last time they were there. It was just a little bit bigger, with just a few little touches here and there that made it stand out and reminded everyone of its new status.

            “Uh, boys…it’s not really my place to say…but…your parents…”

            “We’re on it.” Said the twins as they arrived in the boys’ dormitory. It wasn’t hard to dial the number. The hard part was hearing her voice on the other end of it, “Hi Mom!”

            “Billy, Tommy, thank G-d! Where are you? Are you eating?” What followed was another awkward, tear-filled conversation. Rebecca and Jeff wanted them to come home, but they were still in danger. If they returned home, they wouldn’t be able to sit idly by without going out as superheroes. That was sure way to end up in jail.

            But they were safe they said, “We’re at our Sister’s place.” They didn’t have a…oh? It dawned on their parents that the only likely suspect was Kitty Pryde, which meant they were also with their biological grandfather. Well, she supposed to herself after the phone call, at least they’d be away from all the fighting. Even if she still wasn’t quite sure about that Magneto character.

            “We’re also at a real school…. Xavier’s is accredited, right?” asked Tommy.

            Billy shrugged, “Ask Scott, he knows everything apparently.”

            “We love you boys, keep in touch,” said Rebecca firmly.

            “We promise,” they said together, “Call you tomorrow.” There was a sigh of relief on the other end before everyone hung up.

            Kitty knocked on their door shortly after, “Come on, let’s go give you a proper tour since you haven’t been here since we…remodeled…before you’re placed with the general population.”

            “Katzen,” popped in Nightcrawler, “Ve are not a prizon.”  Kitty seemed to beg to differ a bit on the subject. “Don’t scar ze kinder.”

            “Don’t you mean scare?” asked Tommy.

            “Nein,” replied the elf and vanished.

            “I was kidding.” Shouted Kitty, but the elf was long gone. She turned back to the boys, “I swear I was kidding.” The boys laughed and followed Kitty out the door.


	27. X-School Surprise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys start classes at Xavier's...what could possibly go wrong.

Their first full day at Xavier’s they hardly had any clothes to wear, but thanks to suggested from Grampneto, and a little advice from Kitty they managed to scrape some civilian items to wear to classes.

“Is it weird that it takes a traumatic experience and a superhero civil war for us to attend actual classes at Xavier’s?” asked Billy trying to brush his hair.

“Don’t even joke about that,” noted Tommy, “Come on, breakfast waits for no man.”

“Says the kid with a black hole for a stomach.” They ran down the stairs and ended up in the new newly remodeled new cafeteria (was that enough use of the word new?). The entire cafeteria went silent as the boys approached the counter to get something to eat. Billy, being the one to generally eat less, grabbed oatmeal and a much-needed cup of coffee, while Tommy piled his plate high with eggs, turkey bacon, a muffin and several cereal bars.

They found a quiet secluded table, over by the window, just big enough for the two of them and the cafeteria returned to its usual bustle.

“Question is,” began Tommy as they sat down and Billy nursed his cup of coffee, “Are they staring because we’re actual superheroes or because we’re Magneto’s grandkids?”

“How would they know?”

“It’s a small school,” said a girl, “News travels fast and anyone who stands up to Ms. Frost and Mr. Summers gets noticed pretty fast. I’m Sophia and I control wind, welcome to the school.”

“Thanks, I’m Billy and this is Tommy. He’s fast and I’m….”

“Rangic,” Tommy said mouth full of food.  

She pulled up a chair without even asking and plopped down across from them. “Nice to meet you. Maybe you guys could join us after dinner tonight. My friends are over there.” She waved a table with a blond girl an African-American guy with glasses, and a gold covered kid, “We’re the New Mutants.”

“T…thanks,” said Billy, “Wait…New Mutants? Isn’t that a team that had Dani Moonstar on it?”

“Yeah. She’s our advisor. This year they put all of us in squads based on our powers and such. For example, Julian over there,” she pointed to a kid a few tables over, “He’s on the Hellions, which is Ms. Frost’s team, and they beat us last semester, and over there, the green kid, that’s Anole, he’s on Northstar’s team, Alpha Flight.”

“That’s interesting.”

“They’ll probably put you guys on a squad now that you are students too.”

“Do Magneto or Kitty have their own squads?”

“Ms. Pryde does…but Professor Magneto doesn’t as far as we know.”

“Well, as long as he doesn’t call us the brotherhood we’ll be fine,” said Tommy and Billy snorted into his coffee.

Kitty walked by and wished them good morning, “I see you’ve met Sophia.”

“Morning Ms. Pryde.”

“I have your schedules, if you want me to change anything let me know.” She handed the twins their times tables and they look at it.

“Cool, speed training with Northstar,” grinned Tommy, “That’ll be a quick lesson.” Billy rolled his eyes.

“Um…Kitty…we’re already superheroes, do we have to have all this additional training?” asked Billy seeing as he had combat training with Wolverine.

“Sorry guys,” said Kitty, “That was part of the deal I had to make with Snowpants and Crankypants.” She turned to Sophia, “You didn’t hear any of that.”

“Any of what, Ms. Pryde.” She stood up, “I’ll see you boys after dinner.” She left and Kitty took her left over chair.

“If Scott and Emma interfere with your lessons let me or Erik know immediately, okay. They should know better…but just in case.” She told them, “Any other questions?”

“Grandpa’s teaching history? This sounds like fun.”

“It’s a pretty good class,” admitted Kitty, “Dani teaches early US and Native American history and Erik teaches European and Middle Eastern History.”

“Sophia mentioned training squads, do we…” began Tommy.

“No sweat, you are experienced heroes and all that jazz, if you want, you two can be your own squad under Erik’s guidance, or you can just play danger room antagonists and help us train these kids for hostile situations.”  The twins grinned before Kitty left them to their breakfast.

After breakfast and ignoring stares from everyone, Billy and Tommy split up. Tommy headed to speed training with Northstar and Billy headed downstairs to combat with Wolverine. Nothing better than getting your ass kicked in the early morning by the guy who wanted to kill your birth mother.

As soon as he walked in after changing into appropriate gear, the class looked up surprised to see him. He sat down in the circle with everyone else and started stretching.

“Isn’t that one of Magneto’s grandkids?” someone whispered.

“I heard they’re superheroes on the run from the government.” Someone else said.

“Are they criminals like Magneto?” a third person added.

“Shut it!” snapped a Japanese girl, as Wolverine walked in and the class fell silent anyway.

“Good Morning!” grunted Logan, “We will continue from last lesson, partner up.” He looked right at Billy, “Hey look who we have here, Wanda Junior has graced us with his presence. Better watch out kids.” Whose bright idea was it to put him in a class with Wolverine? It was probably Emma’s, Billy was sure of it. As everyone partnered up they heeded Logan’s warning and steered away from him.

Billy remained where he was until the Japanese girl from earlier approached him.

“I’m Hisako,” she said, “Don’t pay them any attention, they’re all just gossips. They’ll move on as soon as something else happens. Would you like to be my partner?”

“Uh…sure. I’m Billy.” He stood up and shook hand with her, “Bear in mind though, my combat skills suck at best. I mean Kitty taught us some stuff. But that was a while ago.”

“Don’t worry, combat is just like riding a bike.” Sure, she says, and proceeds to knock Billy down on the mat a second later. Then again and again before it starts to slowly comeback to him and though Hisako kicks his butt in the end anyway, he can remember a few movies.

“Keep it up Kaplan,” said Wolverine, “And maybe you’ll actually survive.”

“Oh, wow, that means so much coming for you Wolverine,” said Billy with his hands over his heart, dripping with sarcasm, “It’s so nice to know you’re looking out for my well-being.”

“On the mat, now,” snapped Logan to the “ooh’s” of his classmates. Where had that come from? Billy had wondered. Maybe it was the clearly patronizing tone of voice from Wolverine or his own frustrations and anger. But here he was about to go toe-to-toe with him…and boy was he going to lose. “I think you need to learn some manners.”

“Oh yes, beating the crap out of me will totally make me forget you wanting to kill my birth mom.” Wolverine withdrew his claws and some flinched, but Billy remained cool and collected. He approached Billy, and found trapped in a force bubble, “Thanks for the lesson. Mr. Wolverine.”

The class followed Billy out and Julian Keller came in, “Dude, that was so cool,” he told him. Billy said nothing, “Ms. Frost will kill you, though.” The spell-caster snorted.

He turned towards history with Grandpa and followed a blue haired girl and the green kid into the classroom.

“Hi Sophia,” said Billy as she waved him over to an empty seat, “So are you the head of the welcoming committee here too?”

“Something like that,” she told him. Tommy showed up quickly after, zooming into class and sitting right next to his brother.

“How’s old claw marks?” asked Tommy.

“Cranky and rude as ever.”

“Did he…”

“He tried,” admitted Billy and rehashed everything that occurred. Tommy laughed and begged to be the one to tell the story to Grandpa.

Erik walked in like he always did, in a casual sweater, but in the demeanor of a serious and intimidating figure. The twins had met Erik as their grandfather and not as a former mutant supremacist. Seeing him like this was natural.

“He’s still so scary,” said Victor turning to face Sophia.

“Imagine what Grandpa would do to Wolverine,” whispered Tommy and Billy grabbed his arm.

“We cannot tell him,” said Billy finally, “We can tell Kitty or Kurt, but not Magneto. We’re on thin ice here, as demonstrated by the lovely accepting and tolerant headmasters of this school.”

“But Billy, you just…and now he…”

“I’m okay.” He told his brother.

“He’s a teacher, it doesn’t matter if you’re okay or not. Imagine if you didn’t have powers, or weren’t able to control them as well as you do?” asked Tommy.

Erik interrupted the chattering in the class to remind them that it was time for their history lesson. “Before we begin, does anyone have questions about your homework?”

“Yes, Santo.”

“Are the twins really your grandchildren?”

“About the homework, Santo.”

A blond girl Billy and Tommy hadn’t seen before, “Yes Ms. Collins.”

“Aren’t those two superheroes from the Young Avengers? Victor talks about them all the time.”

Tommy and Billy turned to the green kid who hid his face inside his hoodie.

“Alright! I will only say this once and I better not hear anything else on the subject. Yes, Billy and Tommy are my grandsons and that is all you’re going to get. Pass your homework forward please and today we will be discussing the history of the island of Genosha.”

Erik’s lectures were incredible. He was passionate and somehow entertaining as he detailed the extreme apartheid and life-time citizenship faced by the citizens and the treatment of mutants as slaves on the small island. “Of course, the pathetic humans had no concept that their actions were somehow morally repugnant. From the Holocaust to the present, it can be postulated that history indeed repeats itself and that people do not learn from history. I should hope none of you make such a mistake. I’ll be nice for a change and not assign homework. But this means you should be reading ahead in your books.”

Billy and Tommy waited for everyone to leave before approaching the desk as Erik had already begun looking over the homework. “Despicable.”

“Actually, we thought your lesson was really interesting,” said Tommy, “The history books only talk about how you managed to take control of Genosha…or how the UN gave it to you.”

“Most of them don’t talk about the details of Genoshan apartheid and those that do gloss over everything.” Said Billy.

“My reaction was based on the pitiful homework before me. You are right however on Genosha…writing a decent textbook on mutant history would require for an author to actually speak to mutants and thus leaving it solely untouched.” Said Erik.

The twins exchanged glances, “You could do it.” They said together.

“Talk to mutants?” asked Erik.

The twins laughed “Write the book.”

Kitty entered shortly after and looked at the pondering master of magnetism with his grandsons, “Um…I hate to interrupt. But boys, there’s someone here to see you.”

“It’s not the police, is it?” asked Tommy.

Kitty grinned so that couldn’t have been the answer, “Not the police. Let’s go,” she looked at the twins before turning back to their grandfather, to give him a soft smile. 

“Is it Mom?” asked the twins, thinking it could be their birth mother.

“No,” she said, and Erik’s eyes twitched for a second before returning to the homework before him, “They’re in my office, come on I’ll take you.”  Kitty and the boys left the classroom, and turned down the hallway, “So? How’s your first day?”

“Mine was fun, but Wolverine tried to hurt Billy,” said Tommy bluntly.

Kitty sighed, “I’m sorry. I’ll talk to Logan…. he can be difficult sometimes. Don’t worry.” They turned the corner, “If you want, instead, I can teach you self-defense.”

“More Krav Maga and less Snikt snikt? Gladly,” said Billy.  They entered Kitty’s office to see two people, largely obscured by two large chairs. When the door opened they turned and before the boys could process what was happening they were being engulphed in a smothering hug by a woman.

“Mom!” said the boys together as Rebecca Kaplan held on tightly to them. Jeff too the opposite position, pulling all three into his arms. “Dad!”


	28. Visit from the Parents

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rebecca and Jeff hang out with the boys, Kitty pisses off Wolverine, and the Civil War is not over yet

While the boys were in Kitty’s office, the young woman snuck out towards the faculty lounge, which held most of the school’s alcohol supply under careful lock and key. This is where she found the object of her rage, as Logan sat, nursing his usual twelve o’clock glass of bourbon.

“You really can’t wait until five o’clock?” asked Kitty.

Logan shrugged finishing off the glass and pouring a second, “What’s it gonna do? Get me drunk?”

Kitty shook her head and grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge, “You know and I know, that you’re not this much of a dick on a regular basis.” She opened the bottle and took a small sip, leaning on the edge of the counter beside the fridge, her eyes directly on Logan.

“What are you talking about, Kitty?”

“I’m talking about Billy.”

Logan rolled his eyes, “Not this again,” he took a sip of his bourbon, letting the rest circle the bottom of his glass. He stared at it, with such an intensity as if it was the football game of the century. Angrily, Kitty walked over phased her hand through the glass, to tap Logan on the nose. “What?”

“You were ready to play snikt snikt with a sixteen-year-old kid.”

“He’s Wanda’s son?”

“And Erik’s grandson.”

“Is that supposed to make me change my mind?”

“We didn’t punish Professor Xavier for what his son did, why are you punishing Billy for what Wanda did?”

“Because he’s just like her.”

“They both are, they’re caring and kind and smart, they love and take care of each other, they love their families. Erik’s happier than I have ever seen him and it was because of them that I was able to convince him to come here in the first place.” Logan snorted.

“Billy could go rogue.”

Kitty suppressed the urge to break every bottle of bourbon in the mansion. “Logan, I’m begging you, not this again. With the amount of times any of us has gone evil you’d think you’d be able to see the signs. Billy is okay. He’s a little beat up, sure, but doing what you’re doing isn’t going to help, it’s only going to push him away and that can lead down a dark path. So stop being a jerk, pull your head out of your ass, and treat him like any other student, or so help me….”

“Or you’ll what?”

“Or I will make your life a living hell here, don’t think I won’t. I’ll take away all the alcohol, I’ll revoke the kid’s town passes and leave you every weekend as their babysitter. I’ll come up with more,” Kitty chided, “So much more…and I’ll do it. Do you really think I am such a bad judge of character—well…I wanted to be taught by you so who knows what I was thinking?”

“I’ll…. try…” he slowly answered as if the words were fighting to break out from the confines of his mouth. “Where are you going?”

“Unlike some people, I have actual work to do,” she sent him a friendly wink.  

She left Logan where he was, mulling over everything she had said and walked back towards her office.

The twins and their parents had left, not that Kitty would have minded, but it gave her time to come up with some options for the twins and what the training requirements would be for them. Number one, of course would be to have them join her team, the Paladins. Her squad at present consisted of only Armor. Blindfold, and Eosimias. Having the twins on her team would be a great advantage. On the other hand, it was kind of cheating to have two experienced mutants on her team. Of course, Hisako had field experience too. Well that was one option.

Another would be to split the twins up…maybe put one of them on Storm’s team and another on Hank or Bobby’s teams. She doubted they would go for that, although she could already picture the glee on Emma’s face at that prospect. Option three, thought Kitty as she wrote everything down on her pad, would of course be to put the twins on their own squad with either Kurt or Erik as their mentor…. but did they even need one…that was the question.

The final option, option four, would be to have the twins have a tutor/advisory capacity, since they had field experience not only as superheroes and mutants, but as teen heroes. Of course option five, which she had dubbed the fun option would be to have the boys put up a fight against the training squads, give them a real target that’s more on their age level…would that be safe? Hm…

A knock on the door pulled her from her thoughts, “Come in.”

Tommy pocked his head in, “Oh hey, we just gave Mom and Dad a tour of the mansion and they’re wondering if you’d want to join us in the cafeteria for lunch?”

“I think that sounds great,” said Kitty, standing up, “You came at the perfect time, actually.” She followed Tommy out of her office, “I have a couple of options for you guys about the danger room and the training squads.”

“Sounds good,” said Tommy, his hands clasped together behind his neck, “But can we talk about it tomorrow? I don’t think Mom and Dad could handle it if we started talking about things with the word danger in them. Mom might be a psychologist, but she’s a Jewish mother first.”

Kitty laughed, “Don’t I know it.” Billy and the parents had found a cozy corner in the cafeteria and were waiting for them when they arrived. The prying eyes of a few annoyed, sad, and angry students didn’t escape their attention.

Jeff and Rebecca gave Kitty a quick hug before everyone went and grabbed some food and sat down to eat.

“I’m glad the boys have such great nutrition options,” commented Jeff.

“Because of our unique student body, we have to accommodate a lot of different dietary restrictions, so we try to have lots of different foods, and plenty of healthy options. Of course, this is really important when you count how much energy these kids use on a daily basis.” Kitty took a few quick bites of her salad, “How did you like your tour of the school?”

“I wasn’t expecting there to be so many students,” said Rebecca, “I mean I was expecting some, but I had no idea. This is incredible.”

“Every day we get more and more students. Each teacher takes about five students and serves as their advisor and mentor,” explained Kitty, “Did you see Erik?”

“We stopped by his office,” said Billy, “He kept grumbling about how no one teaches kids the fine art of writing these days.”

“He seems to have adjusted to his new role well,” said Rebecca.

“We are lucky to have him and he’s lucky to have us…after everything, having a little family around can only be for the better.” The twins nodded in agreement, “Are you guys staying for the rest of the day?”

“As much as we would like, I know the boys have other classes...We hadn’t really planned this…we just really wanted to make sure they were alright…and check in and…we’ll fax over that paperwork to you,” said Jeff patting his jacket pocket. Kitty nodded.

“What class do you guys have next?” asked Rebecca.

Checking their schedules, it looked like they had Literature with Nightcrawler.

“If you want I can write you a note or something,” prompted Kitty “And meanwhile you can have a little more time.”

After lunch Billy and Tommy coaxed Jeff into a small game of HORSE, while Rebecca lagged behind, sitting on a picnic bench with Kitty and just watching her boys play.

“Kitty, how are the boys, really?” asked Rebecca, “Can’t they come home?”

“I don’t know what happened, neither one of them said anything. They just...when they got here they both looked pretty beat up…whatever happened, wherever they were…I can tell it had an effect on them. As for home, I think between what they went through and the state of superheroes this is the safest thing for them. If they went back home how long would they be able to sit and do nothing before going out and getting arrested and ending up G-d knows where.”

“What are they doing with arrested superheroes?” asked Rebecca, the media had been very tight-lipped, if they knew at all, what happened to superheroes who were unregistered after arrest.”

“Emma knows, she read Tony Stark’s mind and from what I understand, it’s not good.”

“How is it that mutants are able to remain neutral?”

“Ask Emma, she tried to explain it and I still don’t fully comprehend it. It has something to do with all the recent…um…events, here, and on Genosha, we’re pretty much a solo act. It’s…complicated, but somehow she managed to keep Tony Stark off our backs and as much as I hate her, and as much as we disagree we both care about these kids.”

“The boys are taking full courses now here, right?” Kitty nodded, “I’m worried about them.” Rebecca waved to them. Tommy had just thrown the ball and it landed right in the hoop, Jeff looked defeated.

After the game, the boys walked Rebecca and Jeff back to the school’s front entrance.

“Be safe,” said Jeff hugging Tommy, “And protect each other,” he hugged Billy next.

“Please come home soon,” said Rebecca hugging the boys tightly.

“We’re okay Mom, and now that we’re here we can call you and text you and everything will be alright.” Rebecca smiled at Tommy.

“Hug the boys for us,” said Billy. Rebecca nodded and followed Jeff to get into the car. Kitty waved them off.

Kitty wrapped her arm around each of the Kaplan boys as they watched the car leave the campus.

“Come on, Kurt’s waiting.”

Nightcrawler’s class was decorated like a drama club meeting room, colorful wallpaper, blue colored fabrics draped all around the room, and props spread all around. It was a smaller classroom, they noted.

Kitty knocked on the door, “Hey Kurt, I have two more for you. Sorry they’re so late.”

Kurt looked over at the students, who were engaged in discussion groups and took the opportunity to step out of the classroom, “Everything alrhight?”

“Our parents came to surprise us.”

“Ah,”

“Next time you totally have to meet them,” said Tommy.

“It vould be my honor. Go on inside and take a seat, we’ll be continuing soon.” Kitty smiled at Kurt and the boys and headed back to her classroom.  “Vunderbar,” said Kurt, getting the attention of the students, “Now, bring it in, I vhant to hear all about your discussions. Who vants to go first?”

It was an easy class and Billy and Tommy quickly realized they had already read Sleepy Hollow and happily joined the discussion. After that, they suffered through Chemistry with Beast, among others, but as the clock struck three, the boys were dismissed while the other students of their grade were sent to the danger room for more direct training.

At dinner, they joined Sophia and a few of the other students she hung out with, whom Billy and Tommy remembered were part of the New, New Mutants. There was Josh, aka Elixir and his roommate David aka Prodigy, Laurie who went by Wallflower, Noriko who called herself Surge, and Jay who went by Icarus.

“Wow, they really keep you guys on a tight schedule,” said Tommy after the introductions and they mentioned training.

“They try to keep us busy so we don’t wallow at being abandoned by our parents,” said Josh, “Mr. Wagner’s class is cool though.”

Billy and Tommy tried not to snicker at Kurt being referred to as Mr. Wagner.

“That’s depressing,” commented Noriko, “If accurate.”

“Your parents pushed you into the purifiers,” said David, with his arms folded, looking at Josh.

“So? Being bigoted racists who disowned me doesn’t mean they weren’t my parents.”

“It’s hard,” said Tommy, “Feeling like there’s something wrong with you, like you didn’t work hard enough to make them love you. It’s even worse when they do it right to your face.”

“You had your parents abandon you?” asked Josh, “I thought you two grew up together…and didn’t we see you talking to your parents?”

“It’s a long story,” said Billy.

“We were adopted separately,” said Tommy, “I got stuck in Jersey with the Shepherds, until they realized they didn’t want a mutant weirdo in their midst and relinquished all rights to me. Billy and I found each other at a mall a year later…and then the Kaplans adopted me.”

“Not that long of a story,” noted David.

The twins shrugged, “So do you guys know what your role will be in the training squads?” asked Jay, the one with the pretty red wings.

“Nope,” the boys replied together.

“Do you do that a lot?” asked Laurie. The boys nodded, “Yup!”

As they chatted and casually learned more about each other, the kid from an earlier class ran in.

“GUYS! You have to come to the common room.”

“What’s going on Victor?” asked David.

“The Avengers are fighting each other and it’s all being broadcast live.” Everyone rushed into the common room and watched the ZNN footage.

_We are coming to you live from the battle of the century. Avenger vs Avengers and ZNN has the exclusive for you. As you can see the battle is waging strong, and…wait, what is this?_ The screen moved form the pesky sounding reporter towards the action, _it appears…yes, that is indeed Thor,_ the camera zoomed in on the God of Thunder flying through the air,   _It is as of yet unclear who’s side he is…well, I guess that answers that question._ Thor walked through a few of the Avengers they knew, the ones on the anti-registration side, Billy and Tommy turned towards each other, holding one another tightly as they watched.

Shortly after however there were booming sounds, the camera shook, and the helicopter was forced out towards a safer area, _“I cannot believe it. Thor attacked Goliath…we can visually confirm that the superhero called Goliath is dead.”_

The report turned back to the studio, and the twins quietly snuck off towards their dorm rooms and pulled out their phones to monitor the incoming reports. No other fatalities were reported that night except for Goliath.

It was around two am, when neither one could sleep when they finally got a message on their phones, _We’re Safe._ It read and that was all that could be written.


	29. SRA's and Child Soldiers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The twins roles are revealed and some things about the SRA come to light.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have not forgotten about this fic. I promise, I will be updating, though rare it might be.

The twins retired to their rooms and opened an alert on Tommy’s phone, regarding the Young Avengers. He had set it just in case, to keep up to date with what was going on with their friends. He wanted to make sure they were okay.

 _“Welcome to the Late-Late Show,” came the voice of the gracious host as he introduced itself, “Today we are incredibly lucky to get some clarity on this Superhuman Civil War from, the one, and only, the Iron Man of the hour, Tony Stark.”_ The twins groaned.

Tony Stark appeared from across the studio, with his smug face and a snazzy suit, he shook hands with the host and sat down.

_“Tony, my man, how have you been? Your team is just fresh form your fight against the Avengers.”_

_“Corey, as you know, it’s been touch and go, especially since the accident with Goliath.”_

“Accident? Is that what he calls murder?” asked Tommy angrily over what Corey the host said about Goliath’s death.

_“…We’re so excited to have you, finally filling in the blanks of what’s been going on,” Corey said, “Let’s start with this, do you think you will win this war?”_

_“Absolutely!” Tony said, whatever reserves may have plagued him, he seemed to have recovered quickly, “Captain America’s team of rag tags is dwindling. Several heroes were arrested during the battle and we’ve even got some newly registered superheroes.”_

_“Do tell.”_

_“Well, I know you’re a huge fan of them, and I can tell you. Stature, from the Young Avengers just registered.”_

_“Well that’s exciting,” said Corey, “What will happen to her now and other teen superheroes who’ve made this decision.”_

_“They will go to a classified facility, where they will be trained and tested on procedure and protocol. They will learn about following orders and be put through rigorous testing.”_

“More like train child soldiers.”

“The Sellout Avengers School of Military Tactics?” spit Tommy and laughed bitterly.

_“I suppose my next questions is on the same lines, what about the other Young Avengers? And is it true that no one’s seen or heard from Caster and Speed? They weren’t at this last battle and rumor has it they haven’t been seen by anyone in a month. Could they have simply hung up their tights.”_

_“I hope so,” said Tony, “Being a teenager is hard enough without all these powers, and not knowing what to do with them. Our best speculation is that they’ve taken the correct path and hung up their capes.”_

“Which is hilarious since they’re arresting anyone who even has powers,” said Billy reading something off a fan site, “According to this, anyone with powers has to register.”

“I thought it only effected existing superheroes?”

“Apparently its anyone with powers. Because clearly, all superpowered people are either heroes or villains, there is no other option.”

“That’s probably how Emma got them to issue a protectorate to the X-men.” Proposed Tommy.

Billy got onto the computer and started on the research regarding the SRA, something didn’t sit right with it. It was difficult to find anyone who had actually read the bill, let alone the bill itself. It took all night, before Billy found it, buried deep inside the congressional archives, buried under a different number than what had been reported. There was something else within the thousands of pages he had read that night that left his stomach in knots. He turned in around 4 am, but sleep barely found him.

That morning, groggily, he made his way down for breakfast, filling the biggest mug he could find with caffeine. His bag in hand he dropped in on the floor and slid into a seat beside his brother.

“You look really tired,” said Sophia to Billy, as she invited the twins to sit with the other New Mutants.

“I was up really late.”

“Studying for Mr. Magneto’s exam on early mutants?” asked Laurie shily.

“Uh…not exactly,” said Billy, wolfing down the coffee.

“So, did you guys decide what your role is in the training squads?” asked Josh, “Everyone’s been talking about it.”

“Have they?” asked Tommy looking around, “Well, they can stop gossiping, geez, this school is like a sorority house.”

Billy chewed on his lip, but kept the mug pressed to his face. “So? Tell us!” begged Sophia.

“You’re looking at the two newest members of the Brotherhood of evil mutants, in which the brotherhood is literal.” Said Tommy.

“And Ms. Frost is just magically okay with this?” asked David.

“Don’t know,” said Billy, as Tommy added “Don’t care.”

“Maybe you should,” said a voice behind them, Julian Keller, the guy who was in Billy’s combat class.

“Why?” asked the twins.

“She’s in charge of this school along with Mr. Summers.” The twins rolled their eyes, “And she can read your mind. She’s a powerful telepath. If she doesn’t like what you’re doing, she will stop you.”

“She can’t enter our minds without permission,” said Tommy, tapping his head with his finger, “Steel traps! We’re really not worried.”

“At least not about her,” muttered Billy and everyone turned to him, “I’m going to go see Kitty before class.” He stood up with his food and went to return the tray before leaving.  Tommy stared at him and utilizing his super speed, followed after him.

“Billy are you okay?” asked Tommy mere seconds later. The boy said nothing as they knocked on Kitty’s door and entered to find her, Grandpa and Kurt enjoying morning coffee. “So, this is where the good coffee is.”

“Tommy, you don’t need coffee,” said Kitty.

“Need and want are two very different things,” joked Tommy, “But I mean for Billy.”

“Is everything alright?” asked Erik seeing the look on Billy’s face. “Billy?”

“Vhat iz it Kinder?” asked Nightcrawler.  

“So…Tommy and I were talking about the SRA one night and there were some things that didn’t add up. So, I did some digging and found the exact bill, word for word. It was stupid because the bill was miss labeled as a Housing and Urban development bill…anyway I know what’s in the bill…and I know why Stark let the X-men stay neutral.”

“And?” asked Kitty

“It wasn’t because the mutants are autonomous, or because of what happened on Genosha. It’s worse. It’s because if the SRA is just the beginning to mutant registration.” Billy dug into his bag and pulled out all the information he had snuck off to print in the middle of the night from the library. “I still don’t know how this bill got fast-tracked the way it was…odds are it was on the books for at least a couple of years and what happened in Connecticut gave them an excuse to publicize it finally, under the guise of protecting the public. But the fact remains that there is already another bill on the books and the second any type of mutant, regardless of circumstances accidentally does something…another bill, a mutant registration act, will be implemented just as fast.”

The room shook from the magnetism beneath them as Erik’s hands turned to fists. Kurt teleported out of the way of some falling materials.

“Erik, calm down,” said Kitty, “We’ll figure this out.”

He looked ready to kill, but with his grand children in the room, Erik released the things he had channeled.

“Sorry, Grandpa.” Said Billy.

“No no, it is not your fault, child. It is prudent to know such information rather than live in ignorance and be caught by surprise.  Do we know who is sponsoring such a bill?”

“Same guys who worked on the SRA would be the best educated guess. Knudsen a Republican from Idaho, and Dobson (D) from New York, and Heating (D) Mississippi. But the problem is, this isn’t enough to do anything.” said Billy.

“You’re right,” said Tommy, “If we make this public, or write an article, they can just delete the file and pretend none of it happened.”

“Let me take it and talk it over with Emma and Scott,” said Kitty, “And we’ll see what we can do. Don’t you guys have a danger room session with Scott’s training squad?”

“We do?” Asked the boys together. 

“Get ready for that and I’ll talk it over with the faculty and we’ll see what we can do.”

“Good luck Vunderkind, I am sure you vill do splendidly.” Added Kirt.

The training squads were actually a smart idea, it was like a teams’ thing, where students could learn skills while competing against each other. The other benefit was it taught them how to defend themselves, save others, and control their abilities.

Billy and Tommy hugged Kitty and Erik, and high fived Kurt, before heading down to the danger room. Their costumes were basic, not all that different from their original attire, but it had the added benefit of resembling their parent’s suits, meaning Billy’s was red, and Tommy’s was blue. Part of that was to protect them and their identities, just in case anyone blabbed that the X-men were housing two unregistered heroes. The other part was it provided an esthetic effect of outlining where the boys’ roles lay.

Cyclops was waiting for the doors to open while Beast finished programing the danger room.

“Hello Cyclops!” Sing songed Tommy. Scott glared. Beside him stood triplets, a girl with pink skin, a blonde kid, and one boy covered in spikes.

“Corsairs meet Scarlet Sorcerer and…blue lightening.”

“That’s not our names,” said Billy. Scott continued to stare and despite the visor they could tell he was glaring.

“Whatever, this is my squad, the Corsairs: Three-in-One, Dryad, Quill, and Specter. For the purposes of this exercise Corsairs, your task is simple. You have to rescue the civilians inside the house. The Brotherhood of Mutants over here will try to stop you. Simple enough!” Scott said dryly. “You can discuss strategy between your teams and how you wish to approach the situation. Brotherhood will go in first, when I get the green light from Beast, you’ll go in after.”

“See you guys out there,” said Billy all friendly like.

“Good luck!” said Tommy matching his brother’s smile and they walked into the surroundings of a small house in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by nature, trees, and a nearby stream. “So, what’s our strategy how we going to play this? We’ve never played bad guy.”

“Well…maybe we don’t necessarily have to. Grandpa thought of himself as a mutant liberator, right?”

“Yeah…”

“And what’s the most annoying attribute of the x-men?” Asked Billy.

Tommy laughed, “That they focus too much on playing nice with bigots and turning children into soldiers, while ignoring silly little things like PTSD and the fact that kids want to graduate high school.”  As soon as Tommy finished he laughed, “So you’re saying we need to see the X-men as the people who want to turn kids into child soldiers, while we…. what? Want to give the kid a normal life and just teach him or her how to use their powers?”

“We could certainly play it that way. Maybe we want to whisk the kid away to a newly rebuilt Genosha and the X-men are trying to stop us.”

“Wow Billy, I never knew you had such a devious mind.”

“Yes, you did!” responded Billy and flew up in the air.

“Great, I’m ground control, you are air cover. And we got the telepaths covered between the two of us.” Billy smiled and nodded to his brother before giving Beast the go ahead to let their opponents into the danger room.

The final piece of the puzzle was put into place and the girl appeared, she saw the approaching team and ran inside the house, locking herself.

“Would you mind letting us pass please,” said the blonde boy, entering the room, Specter, “We don’t really want to fight…and I think we can come to some kind of understanding.” It was cute actually, and almost sincere, noted Billy. Almost, seeing as the Triplets were getting into position behind the trees.

“I don’t think giving a young mutant over to be turned into a soldier is really the smartest thing to do,” noted Tommy, standing in front of the door. “How about this. You guys walk away right now and we’ll take good care of the mutant girl.”

“Not going to happen.” The pink skinned girl with the ears started to manipulate the earth and the trees started shaking and branches expanded to swing out at Tommy.

“Tommy!” called Billy quickly, his twin saw the trees coming and managed to avoid them, as spikes started flying. Billy put up a barrier to avoid the quill attack, as a shadow descended behind him and the Cuckoos got ready to attack.

“Nice distraction!” noted Tommy, running around the attacking tree vines Dryad had sent his way. He maneuvered around her and managed to gently knock her down. The spiky kid wasn’t much harder, being subdued by a blown-up rock. The blonde kid, however had disappeared somewhere.

“Maybe it’s time you went to sleep.” Suggested the triplets, with their eyes glowing. But the reaction had been the same as it had with Emma Frost, the attack on their minds sent a concussive wave right back at the triplets and they fell in cries of pain.

“How’d that work out for you?” asked the boys, as Tommy proceeded to wrap them in the left-over vines, right beside their friends.

“Where’d the blond kid go?” asked Tommy zooming around the location trying to find him, to no avail. “Billy, you getting anything?”

Billy remained in the air, staring over the grounds, but there was something weird going on with the light….it just didn’t make…oh. “He’s the shadow!” Billy said, twirling around to face the beast clouding behind him and blasted him with a large ray of light, before capturing him with his magic and safely placing him with the others.  

The boys then walked inside the cabin, where the mutant lay huddled inside, “Come with us!” said Tommy to the small girl, “We’ll take you somewhere you can be safe.” The girl took their hands and instantly the area around them vanished, revealing a metallic area, as a cranky Cyclops entered the room.

“Thanks guys!” said Tommy, “That was a lot of fun!”

“Yup!” Quill and Dryad woke up in that moment rubbing their heads, from the blows they had received early on, “Good strategy, poor execution.”

“That was…that took five minutes.” Said Cyclops, practically seething.

“Sorry, we would have done it faster, but one of your students disappeared,” explained Billy, “Cool power though.” He nodded to the blond kid with the shadow powers. He was now waking up too, while the triplets were still knocked out. The other team members huddled around the help their leaders.

“Sorry about the triplets,” said Tommy, “But we can’t really control that part.”

Scott growled before following his students out of the danger room and Beast looked on from the booth intrigued, and slightly amused.


End file.
